present-day EGYPT 



^^ 











FREDERIC 

COURTLAND 

PENFIELD 


m 




Class _J]X5_4_ 
Book 



'Pa 



Copyright N^. 



COPWIGHT DEPOSrr. 



Secretariat 

du 
EMdive. 



Eas-el-Teen Palace, 
Alexandria, 4tli November, 1899. 



Frederic C. Penpield, Esquire, 
Manliattaii Club, New York. 

My dear Sir : 

I am commanded by H. H. Tlie Khedive to 
acknowledge the receipt of the copy of your 
hook "Present-Day Egypt," which you have 
so kindly forwarded for his acceptance. 

I am to say that His Highness has read it 
with much pleasure and interest, as it is the 
only hook published on Egypt of to-day by 
an author thoroughly acquainted with the 
subject through long residence and official 
position in the country. 

I have the honor to be, Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
(Signed) Alfred B. Brewster, 

Private Secretary to H. H. The Khedive. 




HIS HIGHNESS ABBAS HILMI PASHA II, KHEDIVE OF EGYPT. 



PRESENT-DAY EGYPT 

By 

Frederic Courtland Penfield 

Formerly United States Diplomatic Agent and 
Consul- General to Egypt 



Illustrated by 

PAUL PHILIPPOTEAUX AND R. TALBOT KELLY 

And from Photographs 



"I shall now speak at greater length of Egypt, as 
it contains more wonders than any other land, and 
is preeminent above all the countries in the world 
for worlcs that one can hardly describe." Herodotus 



IReviseD and BnlacgeD jEDition 




NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1903 



X)T 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN S 1903 

/\ Copynglit tntry 
CLASS j^ XXe. No 
COPY 0. • 



Copyright, 1899, 1903, 
By The Century Co. 



THE DEVINNE PRESS. 



Sv 



A. 

V 



TO KATHARINE: 

WIFE, COMRADE, AND CRITIC 






Preface to Revised Edition 

I STOOD once before a window in Venice 
wherein an artisan was at work. Arranged 
before him were smalts and innumerable bits of 
glass of every hue, some brilliant, many dull, and 
none suggestive of value or purpose. Apparently 
following no definite design, the workman seemed 
to draw mechanically upon the materials at his 
command, choosing alike from the dull and bright 
pieces, until it could be seen that the object on 
which he had been employed, now completed, was a 
mosaic of attractive pattern— not a masterpiece in 
any sense, but perfect enough to find a purchaser 
from among the group of onlookers. 

In fashioning this mosaic volume of information 
concerning the reawakened Nile country, I may 
have drawn too generously upon the supply of 
lusterless material, and dulled naturally brilliant 
atoms by misplacing them in the pattern. The 
finished article, I am conscious, is far from a mas- 
terpiece, but may be attractive enough to satisfy 
the inquiring reader interested to learn about the 
atoms making up the Egypt of to-day. 

"Present-Day Egypt" is prepared neither for 
the Egyptologist, antiquarian, nor historian : these 

vii 



Preface 

are favored already with a bibliography straining 
the shelves of every library. Aiming at being a dis- 
cursive budget of information and comment, — 
social, political, economic, and administrative,— 
the volume presents a series of faithful pictures 
of the Egypt that is interesting to the winter 
visitor, health-seeker, and general reader, desirous 
of learning something, and not too much, of con- 
temporary conditions in the oldest country in the 
world. " Present-Day Egypt " is written in no par- 
tial or partizan spirit, and advances no theory of 
the purpose of the Pyramids, nor attempts to ex- 
plain the riddle of the Sphinx. 

The work has passed through enough editions, 
in America and in England, to prove that a de- 
mand existed for a book on modern Egypt whose 
purpose was informing— a volume by a layman for 
lay readers. To this end the present edition has 
been generously amplified, and brought up to date 
with sufficient fidelity to record events occurring 
but a few weeks prior to its going to press. 

Feedeeic C. Penfield. 

Authors Club, New York City, 
September 18, 1903. 



Authok's Note. — The poem, " The Rose of Fayum," is incorporated in 
this volume through the courtesy of Professor Clinton ScoUard, and of 
Messrs. Copeland & Day, publishers, Boston. A considerable portion of 
Chapter V appeared in the "North American Review "for March, 1903, 
under the title of " The New Nile Reservoir." 



vm 



Contents 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I IN FASCINATING CAIRO 1 

II IN FASCINATING CAIRO (Continued) 40 

III ALEXANDRIA, SEAT OF EGYPTIAN COMMERCE . , 78 

IV PARADOXICAL BUT EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION. 104 

V ItHE expansion of PRODUCTIVE EGYPT BY IRRI- 

GATION 145 

VI tHE STORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL .... 186 

VII BMAIL PASHA AS KHEDIVE AND EXILE . . .220 

Vin 1EWFIK PASHA AND THE ARABI REBELLION . 247 

IX THE PRESENT KHEDIVE AND KHEDIVAL FAMILY . 274 

X (RE AT BRITAIN'S POSITION IN EGYPT ... 300 

XI iN EGYPTIAN NIGHT'S ENTERTAINMENT . . .338 

XII WNTERING IN EGYPT FOR HEALTH'S SAKE . . 358 

INDEX 393 



IX 



List of Illustrations 



PAGE 
HIS HIGHNESS ABBAS HILMI PASHA II, KHEDIVE OF 

EGYPT Frontispiece 

From photograph by J. Heyman & Co. 

GENERAL VIEW OP CAIRO 3 ^ 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 

PUBLIC LETTER-WRITER (LETTER FROM BIANCA TO 

GIOVANNI) 9 " 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 

MARRIAGE PROCESSION AND SABER DANCE, CAIRO . 17 
From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 

A BURIAL, CAIRO 25 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 

A HOWLING DERVISH 31 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 
PROCESSION OP THE SACRED CARPET, CAIRO . . . 37 ' 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 
BRASS-WORKERS AT THE SOUTH GATE OP THE KHAN 

HALIL, CAIRO 43 - 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 
NEW EGYPTIAN MUSEUM, CAIRO, WHERE REPOSE THE / 

ROYAL MUMMIES 49 

From photograph by V. Giuntini, Cairo. 

WOMEN OP THE NILE 57 -^ 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 
THE ROSETTA STONE 67''' 

COURT OP EL-AZHAR, CAIRO 73 . 

From photograph by Bonfils. 

WATER ENTRANCE OP RAS-EL-TEEN PALACE, ALEX- 
ANDRIA 81 

From photograph by Zangaki. 

PLACE MEHEMET ALI, ALEXANDRIA 87 '' 

From photograph by Zangaki. 

FREDERIC C. PENPIELD, UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC 
AGENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT, 1893-97 . 93 
From photograph by Sarony, New York. 

xi 



List of Illustrations 

PAGE 
CLEOPATRA (FROM THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH) . . 99 
THE SPHINX 107 

From photograph by Zangaki, 

AFTER PASSING DRAWBRIDGE, CAIRO 113 

From photograph by Zangaki. 

SIR REGINALD WINGATE, SIRDAR OF EGYPTIAN ARMY 
AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE SUDAN . . .121 
From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co., Cairo. 

THE PYRAMIDS, SEEN FROM NATIVE VILLAGE . . 129 
From photograph by Zangaki. 

AN OFFICIAL GROUP IN GROUNDS OF THE UNITED 
STATES DIPLOMATIC AGENCY AND CONSULATE- 
GENERAL, CAIRO 135 

THE EARL OF CROMER, G.C.B., BRITISH DIPLOMATIC 

AGENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL ." 141 

From photograph by J. Heyman & Co. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST CATARACT, LOOKING 

SOUTH PROM ASSUAN 149 

From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 

LOG-SWIMMING DOWN THE ASSUAN CATARACT . , 155 
From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 

PHIL^ AS IT USED TO BE . . 161 

From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 
ASSUAN RESERVOIR IN SUMMER (HALF FILLED), SEEN 

FROM THE CATARACT 167 

From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 

TOURIST-BOAT LEAVING SHELAL FOR THE CATARACT, 

BEFORE THE DAM WAS BUILT 173 

From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 
NATIVES HAULING A BOAT UP THE "GREAT GATE," 

FIRST CATARACT 179 

From drawing by R. Talbot Kelly. 
BRITISH TROOP-SHIP PASSING THROUGH SUEZ CANAL . 191 

From photogi-aph by Zangaki. 
A DAHABIYEH ON THE NILE .199 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
EGYPTIAN PROTOTYPE OF FERRIS WHEEL, HUNDREDS 
OF YEARS OLD 207 

From photograph by Zangaki. 
A SIMPLE FORM OF IRRIGATION 215 

From photograph by Zangaki. 
OBELISK AT HELIOPOLIS 223 

From photograph by Zangaki. 

KOM-OMBOS (RECENTLY EXCAVATED) 229 

xii 



List of Illustrations 

PAGE 

EXTERIOR OP TEMPLE AT DENDERAH 235 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
THE FUNERAL CORTEGE OF EX-KHEDIVE ISMAIL, IN 

CAIRO 241 

From photograph by V. Giuntini, Cairo. 

PREDECESSORS OF KHEDIVE ABBAS H 251 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
TULIP COLUMNS AT KARNAK 257 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
AVENUE OF SPHINXES AND PYLON, KARNAK . . .263 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co, 
EGYPTIAN BRIDE GOING IN STATE TO NEW HOME . 269 

From photograph by Zangaki. 
PRINCE MEHEMET ALI PASHA, BROTHER OF THE KHEDIVE 277 
'ABDIN PALACE, CAIRO. CITADEL IN DISTANCE . . .283 

From photograph by Zangaki. 
THE SULTAN'S HIGH COMMISSIONER IN EGYPT, GHAZI 

MOUKHTAR PASHA 289 

From photograph by Abdullah Bros. 
NATIVE WOMAN AND CHILD 295 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
VISCOUNT KITCHENER, FORMER SIRDAR OF THE EGYP- 
TIAN ARMY 303 

A NILE FARM 311 

From photograph by Edward L. Wilson. 

THE NILE BARRAGE, NEAR CAIRO 319 

AT THE BASE OF CHEOPS 325 

GHIZEREH BANK OF THE NILE, CAIRO 333 

From photograph by Zangaki. 
BISCHARINS IN UPPER EGYPT 339 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
TYPES OF MALE AND FEMALE BEDOUINS .... 347 

From drawing by Paul Philippoteaux. 

WOOD-WORKERS 353 

From photograph by Zangaki. 

TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL, NUBIA 361 

From photograph by A. Beato. 
SCENE IN THE FAYUM 367 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
LUXOR 375 

ASSUAN 383 

From photograph by G. Lekegian & Co. 
MAP OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 389 

xiii 



Present-Day Egypt 



Present-Day Egypt 

CHAPTER I 

IN FASCINATING CAIKO 

FROM its founding in 969 by the Fatimite 
califs, as an offshoot of the tented settlement 
of Fostat, to the present rule of Abbas Pasha, sev- 
enth khedive, or viceroy, of the dynasty of Mehemet 
Ali, Cairo— capital of Egypt, metropolis of the 
African continent, and chief seat of Mohammedan 
teaching— has a romantic history. Scene of famous 
exploits of great personages, from Saladin to 
Napoleon, of sanguinary conflicts between Chris- 
tianity and Islamism, and the memorable massacre 
of the Mamelukes ; cradle of religions and cults ; 
home of the "Arabian Nights" tales; the place 
where lasting principles of philosophy and science 
were conceived, and where Bible scenes were laid, 
Cairo has become the meeting-ground of winter 
idlers from every clime. 

The visit to Egypt has become almost as essen- 
tial to Americans— and fully half of the eight thou- 
sand winter visitors are from the United States — 
1 , 



Present-Day Egypt 

as the pilgrimage of good Mohammedans to Mecca. 
The Mohammedans' religion takes them but once to 
the sacred city of the prophet, but pleasure draws 
those favored by fortune to the Nile capital time 
after time. Cairo is more than interesting: it is 
fascinating. The antiquarian, the student, and the 
savant have always been at home there ; and the 
invalid— real or imaginary— seeking a climate, finds 
in and about the khedival city the superlative of 
air and temperature. 

Artists never weary of reproducing Cairo's pic- 
turesque scenes and vivid colorings. The blue 
of the skies, the splendor of the setting sun, the 
Turneresque afterglow, and the delicate browns of 
the desert, can be best suggested in water-colors, 
for, like Venice, Egypt demands a master hand in 
oils. 

The traveler of impressionable nature yields to 
the fascination of Cairo's quaint Eastern life, as 
perfect as if met far beyond the Orient's threshold, 
and doubly satisfying, because found within a half- 
hour of the creature comforts of hotels conspicu- 
ously modern. To walk the streets of an Oriental 
capital wherein history has been made, between 
meals, as it were, and delve by day in museums 
and mosques perpetuating a mysterious past, and 
dine de rigueur in the evening, with the best music 
of Europe at hand, explains a charm that Cairo has 
for mortals liking to witness Eastern life provided 
they are not compelled to become a part of it. If 
Egypt disappoints, the indecisive idler can in four 
or five days be back in Paris or on the Riviera. 

2 



In Fascinating Cairo 

Every turning in the old quarters of the Moham- 
medan city has its story. The remnant of a fortified 
gateway, a dilapidated mosque, a Cufic text, each 
has its history, perhaps carrying one back to the 
days when Saladin went forth from El-Kahira to 
meet Richard and his crusaders on the plain of 
Acre; or the mind's eye sees the good Harun-al- 
Rashid, freshly arrived from Bagdad, stealthily 
pursuing his midnight rambles. A hundred asso- 
ciations such as these are wrapped about the 
crumbling ruins of medieval Cairo, to this day 
rich with exquisite achievements of Saracenic art. 
Huge monuments of the earliest history of the world 
fringe the horizon as one looks from the ramparts 
of the citadel, teaching us how the years of Cairo 
are but as days in the sight of the Sphinx and the 
Pyramids. To the left is desolate Memphis, earli- 
est city of the world ; face about, and you behold 
the edge of the land of Groshen ; two or three miles 
down the Nile, near the Embabeh end of the rail- 
way-bridge. Napoleon and his army, just a century 
ago, won the battle of the Pyramids over the 
Mameluke horde; and in a modern structure in 
the near foreground, the Egyptian Museum, rest the 
bodies of Seti and the great Rameses, while within 
a few paces of the spot from which you are view- 
ing this matchless panorama sleeps the Roumelian 
warrior who by daring and bloodshed founded the 
dynasty now ruling Egypt. All this, and more, 
may be seen in an hour, if the blare of bugles, 
reverberated by the Mokattam Hills, does not in- 
form you that the British soldier has decided it is 

5 



Present-Day Egypt 

time to close the gates of Saladin's stronghold, and 
you are awakened to the fact that your table d'hote 
dinner begins in thirty minutes, and you must array 
yourself in conventional evening garb before you 
can partake thereof. 

The suburbs have a double charm to students of 
the Bible. A visit to the Shubra road, the Corso of 
Cairo until fashion decreed the Grhizereh drive, at 
sunset, will illustrate the scriptural allusions to the 
sheep and the goats; and a pleasing picture may 
there be seen of the shepherd bearing in his arms 
a lamb or kid too feeble to keep pace with the 
herd. The scene might have been taken from an 
engraving in an old Bible. One will not proceed 
far without seeing devout Moslems engaged in 
eventide prayer on the housetops. The wine-skin 
of old was the same as that used now by the water- 
carrier, seen a hundred times a day in Cairo, ena- 
bling one to comprehend the simile of new wine in 
old bottles. Aged men about the mosques and 
bazaars are appareled to-day as they were in Abra- 
ham's time, carrying the same staves ; and the scribe, 
with inkhorn and pens of reed in girdle, joins the 
throng in the Khan Halil to-day, and frowns upon 
the outcast Jew, as did the Pharisee upon the 
publican. A few minutes' walk from the hotels 
brings one face to face with the living Bible ; a few 
minutes' drive in another direction may bring one 
face to face with the grotesque characters of a 
hotel costume ball, with petits chevaux for a diver- 
sion between dances. Cairo is paradoxical as well 
as fascinating. 

6 



In Fascinating Cairo 

Walk eastward from your hotel, and in five min- 
utes you are in the medley of East and West. At 
the post-office observe the mingling of nationalities. 
A German nurse-maid, leading the little son of a 
prosperous Frankish merchant, is inquiring for let- 
ters at the poste restante window, and a patriarchal 
sheik in silken caftan and turban is negotiating a 
money-order to send to some up-Nile village. With 
a swagger indicating a sense of importance, Tommy 
Atkins enters, pouch over shoulder, to get the 
dainty billets-doux for the smart regiment quartered 
at Abbassieh, and home letters for officers and men. 
Another window is surrounded by students from 
El-Azhar. One is expecting his monthly remittance 
from the family in Tunis, and his ten or twenty 
comrades take a keen interest in the operation of 
attaching the Arabic hieroglyphics to the several 
receipts demanded in case of a money-order or 
registered letter. 

Over the way, ranged along the iron palings of 
the buildings of the Mixed Court, are the public 
letter-writers, gravely imperturbable, sitting at um- 
brella-shaded tables, prepared to write anything 
for illiterate applicants, in any language, for a pias- 
ter or two. One is preparing the soul-impassioned 
letter of Bianca to her Griovanni, back in Naples 
or Brindisi, assuring him that she has not ceased 
to love him, although separated by the turbulent 
Mediterranean for more than a month. At another 
table one of the professional scribes is inditing for 
Youssef Mohammed a bid for clearing a canal at As- 
siut, for which the government has invited tenders. 

7 



Present-Day Egypt 

The contrasts presented by the people thronging 
the streets are amusing and bewildering. The 
European element— Grreek, Italian, and French— is 
everywhere blended with the Oriental. Egyptian 
women swing along in blue gowns and black veils 
hanging loose, allowing the neck and line of cheek 
to be easily seen, while concealing the only part of 
the face scrupulously hidden by an Oriental woman 
— the mouth. Bedouins stalk about with lordly 
mien, wearing around their turbans the striped 
hufieh of their desert tribe. Coptic effendis, uncom- 
fortable in the clerical-cut coat signifying govern- 
mental employment, scamper along on donkey- 
back conscious of their own importance, but as 
obsequious as slaves on encountering a person of 
higher official station. A clatter of hoofs of a 
cavalry guard draws every one to window or bal- 
cony to see his Highness the Khedive dash past, 
in open carriage, with aide-de-camp by his side, 
hurrying in from Koubbeh to conduct the day's 
affairs of state at Abdin Palace. Running foot- 
men, with bare brown legs and embroidered jack- 
ets with flowing sleeves, carrying wands of author- 
ity, soon follow, commanding the populace to make 
way for the carriage of their master, perhaps a 
pasha making a call of ceremony, or the diplo- 
matic representative of one of the great powers. 

In the midst of this moving throng a camel-train 
comes noiselessly into the foreground, laden with 
rough building-stones slung in network sacks, con- 
tending with English dog-carts and bicycles for 
right of way. The camels never relax their super- 

8 



J < 













rN,;:ir 



PUBLIC LKTTER-WRITER (LETTER PROM BIANCA TO GIOVANNI). 



In Fascinating Cairo 

cilious expression, even when nibbling at beflowered 
Parisian bonnets on the heads of ladies seated in 
victorias in front of them. This, or a comic-opera- 
like medley fully as novel, may be seen any day 
from the veranda of Shepheard's or the new Savoy. 
Equally heterogeneous is the jumble of human- 
ity on tourist-hotel terraces. Princes of ruling 
European houses rub shoulders in friendly manner 
with sovereign visitors from the States. The Eng- 
lishman, who never tires of informing the stranger 
of the benefits conferred on Egypt by the wholly 
disinterested British " occupation," is everywhere. 
Grrand duchesses and society queens share tables 
with dressmakers from Paris and elsewhere, each 
sipping afternoon tea, not knowing, perhaps not 
caring, who or what her vis-a-vis may be. An 
Omdurman hero, modest and good-looking in civil- 
ian dress, is the cynosure for a few minutes of every 
feminine eye, and the recipient of courtly con- 
sideration from "Baehler," "Luigi," or "Greorge," 
— the managerial triumvirate of Cairo's hotels,— as 
the case may be. The Egyptologist, with long 
hair, excavating at Thebes or Sakkarah, with half 
the alphabet appended to his name, or the irriga- 
tion expert, rescuing from the desert a province 
of tillable soil, is eclipsed by the Mahdi's escaped 
prisoner. However, the inclination of this tea- 
drinking, gossiping— perhaps flirting— crowd is to 
forget cares and responsibilities, breathe the hea- 
venly air, and watch indifferently the kaleidoscopic 
panorama of Egypt passing endlessly in the street. 
In a land of perpetual sunshine it is wonderful how 

1 1 



Present-Day Egypt 

the willingness to do nothing grows on human 
beings who in other places must be employed to 
be happy. 

An amusing feature of street life is the manner 
in which the huckstering of fowls is conducted. 
The fellah woman, paying duty at one of the octroi 
bureaus, comes into Cairo with a donkey loaded 
with baskets of hens, ducks, and geese, their heads 
standing out in every direction as if enjoying their 
outing. To sell a dozen fowls keeps the woman 
dickering all day. Her lord and master, maybe, is 
driving a flock of young turkeys through the 
crowded streets of the European quarter, singing 
the praises of his peeping, docile birds in a man- 
ner conveying a meaning only to the servant class. 
With a palm-branch he guides the flock wherever 
he wishes, keeping the birds clear of the traffic. 
The man loves to dicker, also, and has no appreci- 
able regard for time. To effect the sale of a turkey 
requires a vast amount of palaver and much esti- 
mating of weight, in which numerous disinterested 
natives are invited to take part. Milk is sold in a 
manner too direct to admit of adulteration, for the 
cow is milked in front of the customer's door ; but 
skeptical Egyptians hint that the cows are syste- 
matically plied with lukewarm water before setting 
out. A ridiculous custom is to have a small boy ac- 
company the cows, carrying under his arm a stuffed 
calf, to make them submit willingly to the milking 
process. Badly moth-eaten, with stuffing of straw 
protruding from a dozen places, this calf is always 
in evidence. It is a custom, and in Egypt cus- 

12 



In Fascinating Cairo 

torn is unalterable ; and, presumably, cows are not 
looked upon as possessing sufficient intellect to 
know a live from a dead calf, or to recognize 
their own. 

Cairo presents tbe best exemplification of the 
confusion of tongues descending from the building 
of the tower of Babel that I know. Every lan- 
guage and patois of Europe, every shade of ver- 
nacular of Asia and Africa, may there be heard. 
It is humiliating to us of the Western world, who 
may have struggled the best part of a lifetime with 
a single foreign language, to find the Cairene able 
to speak fluently a dozen. The dragoman or the 
donkey-boy can exploit his vocation in a wonder- 
ful variety of tongues, although possibly unable to 
read his name in any. Ask your way in the street, 
and you must not be surprised if the information 
be given in a sentence made up of words from 
English, French, and Italian, perhaps with a 
Greek word thrown in. Polyglot as Cairo is, the 
medley of coinages is none the less confusing. Send 
your dragoman to the bazaars in quest of some 
article, and he ma}'^ return with the astonishing in- 
formation that it costs " one napoleon, half a sov- 
ereign, and eighteen piasters tariff." It calls for 
pencil, paper, and patience to compute the price of 
the article you are endeavoring to buy through 
your polynumismatic servant. And the piaster, 
the basis of computation, has a confusing value. 
The piaster " current " of small transactions is but 
half as much as the piaster "tariff" of high life ; and 
this latter is only five cents in American money. 

13 



Present-Day Egypt 

Cairenes are ever out of doors. Their religious 
calendar teems with ceremonious anniversaries, 
added to which are the numerous fantasias and 
fete-days required by their devotion to the khedive ; 
and if things of their own are quiet, there being no 
wedding to be celebrated, or friend setting out on 
the pilgrimage to Mecca, or returning from the 
visit to the prophet's tomb, the native classes go to 
see the Greeks honor the name-day of their king, 
or the French colony commemorate the fall of the 
Bastille. With calendars ranging from the Hejira 
to the Gregorian, it is indeed an off day when no- 
thing is being celebrated. Cairo has three fixed 
Sabbaths. Friday is that of the Mohammedan, 
Saturday of the Jew, and the succeeding day the 
Sunday of the Christian church. Being lunar, the 
Mohammedan year is eleven days shorter than our 
own. This makes it difficult for strangers to know 
just when a celebration is to occur, for the interest- 
ing function that one's friend witnessed in midwin- 
ter fifteen years ago, and told you that you must 
not fail to see, now falls in midsummer. 

Every Moslem knows by his almanac when the 
fasting month of Ramadan should begin; but the 
crescent moon must first be seen by the imperial 
astronomer in Constantinople, and the fact be tele- 
graphed to Cairo, before the citadel guns can an- 
nounce to the Egyptian nation that the celebration 
of 'the ninth month of their year may officially 
begin. The streets then become thronged, the 
story-tellers at the cafes draw large audiences, and 
thousands of the faithful spend the night in the 

14 



In Fascinating Cairo 

mosqnes. Ramadan is observed by the masses 
with fasting by day, for nothing passes their lips ; 
even the cigarette is eschewed. But the instant the 
sun disappears below the horizon, feasting begins, 
and, with smoking and merrymaking, lasts well 
through the night. The mortality is very great 
when Ramadan comes in summer. 

The occasion of a wedding is a favorite revel. 
Noisy processions, feasting of friends, and feeding 
of poor, last nearly a week. The wealthy pasha or 
bey gives a public character to his nuptials by 
having a military band and perhaps an escort of 
soldiers head the cortege bearing the bride to her 
new home. A bride elect of the middle class is 
dragged indefinitely about the streets, hidden 
within a closed carriage by Persian shawls drawn 
over the windows, and preceded usually by a clat- 
tering band producing the most penetrating of 
music from discordant instruments. A string of 
camels brings the furniture and gaudily painted 
boxes to her future husband's house, and for sev- 
eral nights the home of the happy pair is bright 
with lamps, and gay with thousands of red-and- 
green flags stretched across the street. A spectac- 
ular procession is that in which the happy woman 
is carried in a palanquin, borne by two camels, and 
surrounded by wild-looking fiends of the desert 
on other camels, who extract an unconscionable 
amount of noise from kettledrums. This is a sur- 
vival of the Cairo of old, and if the procession be 
headed by half -naked mountebanks and swordsmen 
who frequently engage in mimic combat, and a 

15 



Present-Day Egypt 

group of dancing-girls, it attracts great crowds. 
To the bride, however, crouched for hours within 
the palanquin, swaying and rocking with the stride 
of the camels, the ordeal must be as joyless as a 
crossing of the English Channel in choppy weather 
to one yielding easily to mal de mer. The poor 
man feels justified in borrowing at ten, perhaps 
twenty, per cent, a month, the funds essential to a 
proper celebration of his marriage, even if it takes 
years to liberate himself from the toils of the Greek 
lending him the money. 

In the month of Shawal occurs the impressive 
ceremony of despatching the holy carpet to Mecca, 
when streets are filled with soldiery, officials of state 
in gold-embroidered uniforms, and thousands upon 
thousands of the followers of the prophet. Every 
true believer, if possible, passes the day in the 
streets, and women and children appear in gay at- 
tire. The ceremonial is held in the great square 
under the citadel. Khedive and dignitaries are 
present in state to start formally the caravan bear- 
ing the sacred carpet, under military escort, on its 
journey to Arabia. The Egyptian troops in the 
capital, with bands playing, accompany the caval- 
cade to the outskirts of the city. A pyramidal 
wooden structure, covered with embroidered stuffs 
emblazoned in gold with quotations from the Koran, 
perched on the back of a camel of splendid propor- 
tions, contains the carpet. People press violently 
forward to touch the swinging drapery of the camel 
with their hands, which having done, they kiss 
with unmistakable fervor; and as the procession 

i6 




MARRIAGE PROCESSION AND SABER DANCE, CAIRO. 



In Fascinating Cairo 

passes through the narrow streets, many women let 
down from latticed windows shawls or face-veils, 
to touch with them the sacred object. The pilgrim- 
age takes place annually, and the carpet is placed 
on or near the sacred sanctuary in the temple 
at Mecca to absorb holiness for the year. The 
caravan returns to Cairo with the carpet of the 
previous year. With the pomp attending its des- 
patch, and its journey to and from Mecca, the car- 
pet costs the Egyptian government fully fifty 
thousand dollars. An item of expense is the newly 
minted coins thrown to the multitude by the khe- 
dive when bidding the chief of the caravan to 
guard jealously his priceless charge. 

The man who has been to Mecca is supremely 
happy, knowing that paradise will be his reward 
for a life devoted to the teachings of the Koran. 
Neighbors who have not made the pilgrimage look 
upon him as an exalted person, admitting that his 
religion is of a quality superior to their own. He 
may wear interwoven in his turban a strip of green 
cloth, the prophet's own color, proclaiming to all 
whom it may concern that its owner has prayed 
within the holy of holies, and is evermore to be 
given the title of hadji. These dignities and priv- 
ileges are as nothing, in his opinion, compared with 
the right to announce pictorially from his house- 
front the salient features of the trip to the sacred 
city. This he does in his own way, with his own 
hands, and with perspective wholly wanting. If 
he went from Cairo to Suez by railway — which he 
did on a third-class ticket, probably— he describes 

TO 



Present-Day Egypt 

the fact by portraying in indigo blue an impossible 
locomotive, drawing a train of impossible pink 
cars. A steamboat of marvelous design, -with pad- 
dle-wheels revolving in a mass of fish, tells in pur- 
ple how the trip from Suez to Djeddah was made. 
A train of green camels informs the uninitiated how 
the pious man journeyed from the Red Sea coast 
across the desert to Mecca. Huge lions, with round 
and almost human faces, in bright orange, tell of 
dangers in the desert march. But all ends happily, 
for the pictured story invariably concludes with 
the caravan halted before the sacred mosque, with 
the good man prostrating himself in prayer thereat. 
Hadji Youssef Achmet knows no joy greater than 
sitting in his doorway beneath this mural proof of 
holiness, receiving the salaams of passers-by. Eter- 
nal peace is his. He knows this, and every Mussul- 
man seeing him knows it as well. 

The strangest of Cairo customs, perhaps, is the 
hiring of professional mourners, who, at a funeral, 
do the shrieking, howling, and garment-rending for 
the bereaved family. These black-shawled and bare- 
footed objects are frequently to be seen, like birds 
of ill omen, squatting outside a house wherein a per- 
son is dying, awaiting the signal to begin their 
lamentations, which presumably vary in degree ac- 
cording to the stipulated payment. They follow 
the corpse to the cemetery, bewailing at the top of 
their voices and rending their scanty clothing. The 
place of interment reached, the wailing stops sud- 
denly ; the women enjoy a chat by themselves, pos- 
sibly discuss the prospects of further business, and, 

20 



In Fascinating Cairo 

if satisfied with the money given them by the rel- 
atives of the deceased, trot off homeward. Other 
forms of bereavement give them employment also. 
A score of these hags follow to the railway-station 
the squad of policemen taking a convict to prison. 
The women howl and curse, throw handf uls of dust 
over their heads, scream voluble and wide-embra- 
cing Arabic oaths at the authorities, and make the 
street almost unbearable with shrieks and lamen- 
tations. The train started for Tourah, the shrieking 
subsides, and they are ready for further profes- 
sional engagements. The conscripting of young 
men for the army being profoundly dreaded, hired 
wallers accompany their weeping relatives when 
the unhappy lads are marched to the barracks. 

The Cairene, never cultivating physical exertion, 
emerges from boyhood to sedate manhood before he 
is twenty, with tranquillity his chief characteristic. 
The middle-class man enjoys looking at dances, but 
never dances himself ; he is fond of music, but never 
sings or plays. Everything athletic is foreign to his 
nature. He takes to sedentary amusements, and 
in shop or home will ponder long over a game of 
draughts or chess. If belonging to the class that 
goes to the cafe for diversion, he will watch for 
hours the antics of street hoodlums, or join in a 
game of interminable backgammon — which all 
Egyptians love— to deqide who is to pay a few 
milliemes for the coffee or the smoke from the hub- 
ble-bubble. "When he can sit for hours in front of 
the cafe, smoking the hubble-bubble, he realizes 
that he is doing the superlative of all that is grand, 

21 



Present-Day Egypt 

and feels justified in giving it the character of a 
public spectacle. This is the conservative Egyp- 
tian, who sees nothing good in the movement Euro- 
peanizing his beloved Cairo. 

Men of the wealthy classes are becoming daily 
less and less Oriental in appearance and habits. 
They wear clothes of Parisian make, pose before 
the photographer's camera, speak fluent French, 
dance with foreign ladies, flirt a little, and profess 
to think " five-o'clock tea " an institution reflecting 
the highest civilization. Each has his stall at the 
opera, and applauds at the right time. Between 
acts he calls on friends of the limit ton in their 
boxes, and perhaps recruits a coaching or river 
party for the following day. If the visitors are 
from abroad, the courteous native most likely will 
explain that as a lad he witnessed the premier pro- 
duction of "Aida" in that very theater, Verdi's 
opera being an item in the program arranged by 
Ismail for the edification of the Empress Eugenie 
and other distinguished guests attending the open- 
ing of the Suez Canal. If the visitors are from 
Alexandria only, the Cairo gentleman probably 
rings the changes on the contrasting temperature 
of the two cities, wondering how Alexandrians 
can stand the excessive humidity of the coast. 
The visitors retaliate by claiming that the super- 
dryness of the capital affects their health, whereas 
in Alexandria they are always well. Thus the 
weather, in its humid aspect, is sadly overworked 
as a topic of small talk in the country having the 
best and driest climate in the world. If this ac- 

22 



In Fascinating Cairo 

complished Egyptian would remove his inevitable 
tarboosh, in shape and shade of red the latest thing 
from Stamboul, he might to all intents and pur- 
poses pass for a European. But he never will, 
for he is as devoted to the religion of Islam as the 
man praying five times a day in mosque or street. 
His Europeanizing is but superficial, and in his 
heart, perhaps, he abhors all infidels. 

The ladies of the rich man's household likewise 
know French,/ and affect gowns and ornaments from 
Paris and Vidnna. Custom compels them to view 
the opera from screened boxes, and they are never 
included in coaching or river parties. They wear 
the gauziest of veils — exceedingly thin if their faces 
are beautiful — when driven from palace to palace in 
European-built carriages. If opportunity offers, 
they are not averse to peering from behind their 
carriage curtains at passing Europeans, revealing 
glimpses of their faces, and possibly the fact that 
they are smoking dainty cigarettes. Europeans are 
inclined to believe that Egyptian ladies admire Eu- 
ropean customs and perhaps wish to emerge from 
the veiled seclusion of the East. This is not the 
fact, for their adherence to the tenets of Mohamme- 
danism is still rigid, and they look pityingly upon 
foreign women, so little valued by their lords as to 
be permitted to roam over the world with faces 
exposed to any man's admiration. 

There is something profoundly impressive in the 
devotion of the Mohammedan to his religion. It 
governs his actions, pervades his thoughts, con- 
versation, business dealings, and conduct of every- 

23 



Present-Day Egypt 

day life. He reads his Koran faithfully, for it lays 
down his standard of ethics, and is the foundation 
of his code of laws. See him at prayer, in the 
mosque, field, or busy street, addressing his suppli- 
cations to Allah, through his prophet, face turned 
to Mecca: his faith is complete and his sincerity 
unquestionable. He cares not how the onlooker 
may regard him. The fellah on the canal-bank 
utters the same fervent, heartfelt prayer as the 
pasha prostrate upon his silken rug within the 
Mehemet Ali mosque. The cardinal requirement 
of the Koran, that food and riches must be shared 
with the unfortunate, is literally obeyed. The 
Mohammedan has no cant or hypocrisy in his na- 
ture. He is tolerant of all religions, but looks with 
horror upon the unbeliever. It is the good Moham- 
medan of whom I write— and there are many such ; 
not the fanatic, liable by excitement to become a 
frenzied demon. 

The provision of the Koran permitting four 
wives has become more honored in the breach by 
Cairenes than in the observance. Few Egyptians 
in public life have now more than one wife. Khe- 
dive Tewfik gave his influence to the monogamic 
idea; and the present khedive, although not tak- 
ing a wife from the elevated class from which his 
mother came, is following his father's example. 
The middle class is gradually following the matri- 
monial precept of its superiors. Possibly its men 
found polygamy not particularly conducive to do- 
mestic tranquillity, in the absence of sufficient 
means to maintain several establishments. The 

24 



.n 



' - ' *. S4, 





In Fascinating Cairo 

common people, however, adhere to a plurality of 
wives, resenting what they look upon as a move- 
ment to abridge the Koranic custom and privilege. 

The formality of divorce is much simpler than 
that of marriage. Among those not burdened with 
estates and personal belongings it is as easy and 
direct as the dismissal of a servant. The words 
"Woman, I divorce thee," uttered three times in the 
presence of witnesses, if attended by the return of 
the trifling sum that formed her dower, are as 
binding as the final decree of any court in the 
world. The restitution of dower sometimes leads 
to complications, but it is necessary to render the 
husband's words effectual. 

"Woman's position in the Egyptian capital is 
materially benefiting by the movement looking to- 
ward the education of native girls. Twenty years 
ago native ladies regarded education as the learn- 
ing of sufficient French or Italian to read novels or 
follow the plot of the opera. The past few years 
have developed a desire among upper-class women 
to have their daughters educated with as much 
care as boys are, and an important adjunct to the 
household, consequently, is the European gover- 
ness, most often English. A sister of the khedive, 
the Princess Khadija, is an active agent in improv- 
ing the educational status of poor girls. 

Most women visitors to Cairo are curious to see 
the interior of a harem. But this, as Europeans 
understand it, no longer exists in Egypt. Every 
native house, however, has its harem division, set 
apart for women, as the salamlikis for men— nothing 

27 



Present- Day Egypt 

more. In this department reside the wife or wives 
and children of the master, with the addition, per- 
haps, of his mother. In this case her rule is prob- 
ably absolute. It is she who chooses instructresses 
for the children, orders the affairs of the household, 
and even prescribes the fabrics, fashions, and adorn- 
ments of the women, who are simply the wives of 
his Excellency the Pasha. It is mother-in-law rule, 
literally. The windows of the harem usually over- 
look a courtyard or rear street, and are screened 
with mushrabeah lattices, penetrable only by the 
gaze of a person within. To minister to the wants 
of the women's division, a small army of servants- 
shiny black " slaves " from Nubia and Berber, and 
possibly a fair Circassian or two, imported from 
Constantinople— is essential. " Slavery " of this 
sort is scarcely bondage. It is the law of Egypt 
that manumission can be had for the asking, with 
little circumlocution or delay. These servitors are 
kindly treated, value their home, and shrink from 
any movement toward legal freedom. Except to 
the master and sons of the house, the harem is 
closed to all men, but women friends come and go 
freely. The tall, high-cheek-boned black men 
guarding the entrance to the harem, in these pro- 
gressive days in Egypt possessing no suggestion 
of the houri scene of the stage, are trained from 
childhood to keep unauthorized persons from in- 
truding, and have a highly developed aversion to 
sight-seers. 

The howling dervish of Cairo is more or less a 
fraud. Go any Friday afternoon in the season — 

28 



In Fascinating Cairo 

his religious fervor finds expression only during 
the tourist season — to the little mosque on the 
Nile bank midway between Kasr el-Ain and Old 
Cairo, and witness the weekly zik^r of these fiends. 
Sitting in a circle on the stone floor of a high- 
vaulted room are the dervishes, twenty or thirty 
in number. Their bearded leader, spectacled, and 
grave under his green turban, squats on a mat 
in the center. Standing outside the circle is a 
smooth and oily-faced old man, with a simple reed 
flute, flanked by others with large tom-toms. Clus- 
tered along two sides of the room are tourists, cos- 
tumed in a way that would delight an arranger of 
up-to-date melodrama of the spectacular variety. 
Ladies, having misgivings as to what the entertain- 
ment is to be, seem to wish to sit behind the men, 
until the hotel dragomans having the visit in charge 
assure them that it is to be " very nice — very nice, 
yes! Mrs. Vanderbilt of Chicago she come last 
week, yes ! " 

A hush of silence falls over dervishes and tourists, 
and the leader mumbles a prayer. The circle of 
performers break into response ; first in quiet, mea- 
sured tones, then faster, faster, faster. Their bodies 
sway in perfect unison as, now growing vociferous, 
they afi&rm the creed of Islam. Faster, faster go 
the bodies, and the wild chant of " Allah la Ilaha," 
in perfect cadence, is becoming a volume like that 
of Niagara. The leader raises a warning hand, and 
the hush that follows instantly is broken only by 
the cooing of doves resting on the ledges of the 
windows in the dome. Then, low and mysterious, 

29 



Present-Day Egypt 

comes again the nnimble of the leader. The der- 
vishes spring to their feet. Off go robes and tur- 
bans, their stringy locks falling nearly to their 
hips. One of the howlers, placing his hand to the 
side of his mouth, strikes up a falsetto note that 
rises above the barbaric roar of the tom-toms and 
flute, plaintive, penetrating. Faster and faster 
swing heads and bodies ; the air is filled with swish- 
ing hair ; heads come perilously near striking the 
floor, or leaving their shoulders in the backward 
swing. Every dervish is frantic, beside himself 
with the ebullition of fervor, as he repeats in hisses 
the sacred exclamation, " Heu, heu, heu, heu, heu, 
heu, heu." On, on they go, until their mental in- 
toxication is complete, and with staring eyes and 
frothing mouths two or three sink exhausted to the 
floor. Admirers break into the circle and lovingly 
carry into the air the dervishes who have "gone 
melhus.''^ The performance of the howling der- 
vishes is over, and the coins given gladly by the 
spectators to get away from the mosque amount to 
enough to keep the howlers until the succeeding 
Friday. It is something to see — once. The mo- 
tives of the whirling dervishes, like those of their 
howling brethren, are open to suspicion. 

Another widely described institution, satisfying 
most spectators with a single view, is the dancing 
of the Grhawazi girls, to be witnessed at a dozen 
Cairo theaters and cafes. The Chicago Midway, 
and certain places of amusement in Paris, by 
means of elaborations, have given this exhibition 
undeserved prominence. A performance wherein 

30 




J U tj t-i/L-^vKc lean 



X 



A HOWLING DERVISH. 



In Fascinating Cairo 

the feet are seldom lifted from the floor can be 
termed "dancing" only by courtesy; but as an 
illustration of what the muscles of the body may 
be trained to do, the danse du ventre is in a way re- 
markable. The Ghawazi, bred from childhood to 
their calling, are deemed essential at every form 
of Egyptian merrymaking, prince and fellah alike 
employing them. These women form a class, with 
headquarters at Keneh in Upper Egypt, and by 
thirty have generally managed to wriggle them- 
selves into a competency. They are not necessa- 
rily immoral, but are not respected, the habitual 
exposure of the face, if nothing more, placing them 
beyond the pale. 

Ophthalmia is the curse of the native in Cairo. 
Of six people of the poorer class perhaps only two 
will have fair sight ; and of the rest, one will be 
bhnd, one can see from but one eye, and two will 
have otherwise defective vision. Few Egyptians 
have perfect eyesight, and the superstitious dread 
of falling under the baneful influence of the " evil 
eye" is responsible for this condition. Poor chil- 
dren go for years practically unwashed, the pa- 
rents' theory being that if their children are made 
attractive they are almost certain to be stricken by 
the evil eye. Their unclean faces attract hordes 
of insects, never brushed away by their idolizing 
mothers, for that would be unlucky. During the 
summer months especially, children's eyes are 
almost hidden by pestiferous flies, and a race of 
people with imperfect vision is the result. Even 
educated Egyptians have the superstition to some 

33 



Present-Day Egypt 

extent, and men and women of high degree wear 
rings of silver wire to protect them from the evil 
eye. Cairo would be a rich field for the exercise 
of a little practical philanthropy based on the 
employment of soap, water, and scrubbing-brush ; 
but it would come into conflict with the religion, 
which makes of the blind man a person to be 
revered, and affords him an almost priestly occu- 
pation. 

Strange to relate, Cairo is being adorned with 
statues, like cities in the Christian world. In his 
determination to make his capital a triumph of 
artistic beauty, Ismail courageously ordered a 
French sculptor, thirty years or more ago, to model 
a few figures of Egyptian military worthies. The 
faithful in Alexandria had permitted a colossal 
effigy in bronze of Mehemet Ali to be raised in the 
public square, although a tenet of the Koran was 
violated thereby. Another statue, perpetuating the 
military exploits of the second viceroy of Egypt, 
Ibrahim Pasha, had been erected in the Place of 
the Opera in Cairo, without provoking an outbreak 
among strict followers of the Koran. The bronze 
lions guarding the Nile bridge were likewise ac- 
cepted without protest. Ismail believed it would 
awaken the martial spirit of his subjects if every 
public square in Cairo could have its bronze pre- 
sentment of a departed hero or notable ; and if it 
amused him to turn the old city of the califs into 
a statuary gallery, who was to say nay 1 I suspect 
that Ismail must have seen the artistic side of the 
sculptured sentiment of the Campo Santo in Genoa. 

34 



In Fascinating Cairo 

He was resolved, at all events, to erect images of 
distinguislied Egyptians all over Cairo, and French- 
men were employed to make them. Two were de- 
livered before the national exchequer was seized 
with financial cramp and further supplies coun- 
termanded. For lack of money, perhaps, or the 
discovery that it was forbidden by the religion of 
Islam to fashion the image of man, the statues were 
given a resting-place in a shed. Six or seven years 
ago they were excavated from the dust of a quarter 
of a century, and, under the guidance of British 
engineers, were placed upright on granite pedestals 
in the new quarter of the city ; and natives, squat- 
ting on their haunches in the squares thus embel- 
lished, find in them a subject for never-ending 
chatter. They have forgotten that Ismail had the 
figures made, and place the responsibility of the 
bronzes at the door of the Inglesy. 

Had Ismail not lost his throne, and the money- 
lenders of Europe been content to let him have as 
much cash as he wanted, Cairo would to-day be 
more beautiful. It was his dream to make an East- 
ern Paris of his desert capital. The French me- 
tropolis, he argued, could be reproduced, if the 
financial agents of Paris and London did not object. 
A considerable part of the money borrowed was 
spent by Ismail at G-izeh, nearly opposite the spot 
where tradition claims that Moses was found in 
the bulrushes. Grardens like the Tuileries extended 
from the Nile nearly to the edge of the Libyan 
Desert ; dozens of lath-and-plaster structures, with 
walls painted in a style suggesting solidity, went 

35 



Present-Day Egypt 

up as by magic, in the fulfilment of his building 
passion ; and many are the stories told of the mag- 
nificence of everything he did. 

Electric tram-cars now rush boisterously through 
the streets of Cairo, filled with people who never 
understood the " go fever " until the advent of the 
street-railway, two or three years ago; and the 
Egyptians' best friend, the donkey, has been cast 
out from the capital by the trolley-car. The 
Egyptians take so kindly to tram-car riding that 
one wonders if their ancestors, who developed as- 
tronomy and mathematics as sciences and begot 
culture, knew the secret of the electric current. The 
patrons of the tram-cars are soldiers, Levantines, 
small merchants and clerks, turbaned sheiks, Bed- 
ouins, and simple fellaheen in town on business 
—and perhaps this business is chiefly to have a 
ride on the cars. In every direction— to Bulak, 
the citadel, Abbassieh, through the Ismaileh quar- 
ter, even to the site of ancient Fostat— the cars 
run, their occupants looking pityingly upon way- 
farers employing nature's locomotion or the humble 
donkey or stalking camel. The people have learned 
the intricacies of " transfers " and "round trips," and 
their satisfaction over the street traction enterprise, 
doing more than all other agencies to obliterate the 
Cairo of old, seems sublime. 

There is something painfully incongruous in the 
idea of being carried by trolley to the Sphinx and 
Pyramids. But the line enables the visitor who has 
first driven in state to Grizeh to go again and again 
at a cost of a few piasters. The authorities con- 

36 




PROCESSION OF THE SACRED CARPET, CAIRO. 



In Fascinating Cairo 

trolling public affairs were not so short-sighted 
when giving the concession for the Pyramids rail- 
way as newspaper readers may have believed. The 
line in no way mars the superb beauty of the em- 
bowered causeway leading from the Nile to Mena 
House, for it is a goodly distance to the southward 
of the carriageway. If the foreigners directing 
the tramway company failed to make money from 
the start, it was due for a year or more to their 
being called upon almost daily to pay for a life 
extinguished or a body maimed by their modern 
cars of Juggernaut. 



39 



CHAPTER II 

IN FASCINATING CAIKO (Continued) 

APEOOF of the claim that Cairo is being Euro- 
peanized at an uncalled-for pace is suggested 
by innumerable shop-signs of cigarette-makers, 
announcing that they are " Purveyors to His High- 
ness the Khedive," when that potentate is known to 
use tobacco in no form ; another is the ostentatious 
advertisement of a barbering establishment that its 
keeper is " Hair-dresser to the Right Honorable 
Diplomatic Agent of Grreat Britain, by Appoint- 
ment," when it is seen that the gentleman referred 
to has little need for tonsorial attentions. If these 
petty dishonesties fail to convince one that the 
Egyptian capital is adopting European ways and 
customs, the " Want to go shootin' t'-day ? " or the 
" Want anyt'ing ? "—the latter covering a multitude 
of sins,— that will be whispered in the stranger's ear 
by native vagabonds a dozen times in the course 
of a stroll in the Sharia Kamel or the Esbekieh 
Gardens, surely will; and the side-spring "Con- 
gress " boots, made of questionable leather, and the 
ulsters and other English clothes of impossible check 
or plaid, disfiguring the windows and fronts of shops 
in the Mouski, will painfully accentuate the fact. 

40 



In Fascinating Cairo 

The bazaars, however, show no sign of European 
intrusion, and are to-day as Oriental as when Lane 
wrote his "Modern Egyptians." The bazaars of 
Damascus, possibly, are more correctly Eastern, 
but not so those of Constantinople and Smyrna. 
John Bull invades the bazaars of Cairo only as a 
sight-seer and purchaser, wearing sun-helmet and 
pugree, however chilling the wintry weather. He 
usually thinks the prices dear, and parts with his 
coins only after hours of dickering, and does not 
forget his bakshish. The bazaars are the only 
places in Egypt where the tourist receives bak- 
shish. Elsewhere he gives it, or could give it, 
every minute of the day. Americans, on the other 
hand, regard the prices as cheap, and buy, buy, 
buy. It amuses them to sip the shopkeeper's ex- 
cellent coffee and smoke his perfumed cigarettes. 
This hospitality partaken of, they buy more em- 
broidered jackets, gauze scarfs, and inlaid weap- 
ons. Both British and American pay more than 
the things are worth, of course; but the Trans- 
atlantic purchaser has a balance of time to his 
credit. 

It is novel to buy silk fabrics by weight rather 
than by measurement. The slipper bazaar, with the 
sun shut out by projecting lattices and awnings, is 
a subdued blend of red and yellow. Black leather 
is seldom seen there. The crude art of the brass- 
workers' lane, where serious-faced youths embellish 
finger-basins and coffee-trays with designs con- 
ceived by their forefathers when perspective was 
not valued, is popular. The carpet and rug bazaar 

41 



Present-Day Egypt 

is a busy mart, where values are high, and the 
sellers understand human nature. Turn to the 
right, turn to the left, go where you will, the shops 
appeal to some taste or fancy you possess. The 
jewelry bazaar, with its anklets and nose-rings of 
leaden-looking silver or brassy gold, has no tempta- 
tion for the American, however. 

The dingy passage where scents are dealt in is a 
nest of cheats who can sell a phial of common per- 
fumed oil for genuine attar or essence without com- 
punction. The tent bazaar, in which truly artistic 
applique awnings and hangings are wrought with- 
out visible pattern by men and boys, is always 
inviting. Two or three of these needlemen, per- 
haps, were sent to Chicago during the World's Fair ; 
but a hundred will tell you they have been in Chi- 
cago, each producing dog-eared business cards or a 
stray coin of Uncle Sam's minting in substantia- 
tion of the statement. They are agreed that the 
exposition was a grand "fantasia," but most of 
them witnessed it vicariously. "Anteekas'^ are 
offered for sale in nearly every shop of every de- 
partment of the vast labyrinth. The scarab, es- 
pecially, is pushed into your face on every hand, 
and whether you give a piaster or a dozen coins of 
gold, you will have the same uncertainty as to the 
genuineness of the sacred beetle. The Red Sea 
turquoise, gummed to a bit of reed, is likewise 
omnipresent ; it is beautiful to look at, but may 
change color in a week. 

The throng of people in the bazaars is a study in 
humanity, as entertaining, perhaps, as the contents 

42 



In Fascinating Cairo 

of the shops. Eotund women, enveloped in the 
unbecoming black-silk hahheh, displaying feet and 
ankles clad in magenta stockings and white slip- 
pers, seem to go out of their way to jostle Europeans, 
until driven off by one's dragoman. Donkeys, even 
camels, laden with merchandise, force their way 
through passages scarcely wide enough for two 
persons walking abreast. These, and persistent 
beggars and offensively dirty children, are the 
drawbacks to one's enjoyment here. But the 
bazaars are interesting, withal. 

On the way back through the Mouski a half -hour 
may profitably be passed in viewing the fabrication 
at Hatoun's or Parvis's of the mushrabeah work, to 
be utilized in artistic screens and tables. Primitive 
indeed is the method of turning the myriad bits of 
wood for the mushrabeah, on tiny lathes revolved 
by hand, while the chisel is held by the bare feet of 
the operator, generally a lad, who guides the tool 
with the other hand. 

The Mouski used to be all that an Oriental street 
of shops should be, but the past dozen years have 
seen a great change in its character. There no 
longer is matting overhead, affording protection 
from the parching sun in summer. In its place 
swinging signs indicate the presence of modern es- 
tablishments, including a " British Bar," where all 
and sundry are cordially invited to try the Ameri- 
can drinks compounded by La Belle Violette, " just 
arrived from Chicago." There are jewelers' shops 
that would attract notice in the Avenue de I'Opera 
in Paris, the windows of which are filled with dia- 

45 



Present-Day Egypt 

monds and other precious stones of a size suggest- 
ing that the kilo had supplanted the karat as a 
standard of weight. Places where ready-made 
clothing is sold, with unmistakable Hebraic names 
over the doors, have a remarkable similarity to 
Bowery stores. 

Sandwiched between great magazines where 
"Prix Fixe" cards are conspicuously displayed 
may yet be found the dokkan of old. This is but 
a recess in the wall, with tnastahah, or seat, of its 
proprietor on a level with the floor of the diminu- 
tive shop. On this the Arab trader, in flowing robe 
and turban, spends the day, bargaining at times in 
a leisurely way, now and then dozing, with his ro- 
sary of sandalwood beads ever between his fingers. 
When he goes out he hangs a network curtain be- 
fore the shelves where his silken stuffs, spices, or 
embroideries are stored. Egyptians respect the 
netted veil, and, returned from his errand, or prayer 
in the mosque, the merchant resumes his seat on 
the mastabah, knowing that his stock has not been 
rifled during his absence. The water-seller's cry 
of " Oh, may Ood compensate thee," may attract 
this merchant, descended from the times of Abra- 
ham and Joseph. If so, he exchanges a millieme 
for a draught from the earthen jar, returns to his 
meditations, and dreams of vanishing Cairo, of 
Haussmannized avenues, and great emporiums with 
plate-glass windows filled with ridiculous papier- 
mache figures, in a few years destined to metamor- 
phose the city of the califs. The Mouski, unlike 
the bazaars, is being Europeanized at a rate sad- 

46 



In Fascinating Cairo 

dening to one who loves the Cairo of Ismail and 
Tewfik. 

Habitues have their favorite mosques, as they 
have their favorite singers at the opera or horses 
on the Ghizereh race-course. With a city covering 
twelve or more square miles and having a sky-line 
effect of a forest of domes and minarets, there is 
sufficient variety of places of worship to suit any 
taste. Diminutive Kait Bey, in the midst of the 
Tombs of the Mamelukes, is deservedly sketched 
and photographed scores of times every day. The 
unfinished mosque of Rafai, under the citadel, con- 
tains the body of spendthrift Ismail, who ordered 
its construction, but is otherwise unimportant. 
The gem of the Mohammedan artistic world, ad- 
mitted by good judges, is the venerable and bat- 
haunted mosque of Sultan Hassan, close to the 
Rafai structure, always spoken of by the faithful 
as "the superb." For architectural beauty this 
Saracenic pile surpasses the Byzantine St. Sophia 
at Constantinople. Its vast circular dome, spring- 
ing from a square tower, with corner pendentives 
of marvelous design, is a liberal education in archi- 
tecture, although fashioned more than five hun- 
dred years ago. The Sultan Hassan mosque is one 
of the several artistic structures known to travelers 
of which the tale is told that the designer was put 
to death or had his hands cut off by his apprecia- 
tive master to prevent a repetition of his artistic 
triumph. 

The pencil-like minarets of the Mehemet Ali 
mosque, visible long before one reaches Cairo, are 

^7 



Present-Day Egypt 

as beautiful as the Hassan dome is wonderful. This 
mosque, with its alabaster walls and rich carpets, 
is attractive in its way, but comparatively new, and 
consequently clean. Connoisseurs shake their 
heads, however, when debating any pretension to 
its being " good art." The mosque of Amr, in Old 
Cairo, is the oldest in Egypt, its foundation having 
been laid in the year 643 of our calendar; and 
Ahmed Ibn Tulun is the oldest in Cairo proper, 
having been built— in an outskirt of Fostat— in 879. 
This latter is said to be a copy of the Kaaba at 
Mecca. Only in Coptic churches does the visitor 
discover pictorial representations of sacred scenes 
and personages. The Mohammedan on occasion 
takes the spoils of war to his house of worship, but 
never the presentment of human form. 

Strange to state, Cairo has no obelisk, nor has 
Alexandria. New York possesses the last of these 
relics, probably; London and Paris have each a 
fine one, while Rome and Constantinople have 
many. One cannot behold these reminders of the 
greatness of ancient Egypt, in the cities mentioned, 
without a feeling of pity for Cairo, where rest the 
Rameses, but whose nearest obelisk is on the plain 
of Heliopolis, six miles away. Most tourists drive 
out to see it, planning their excursion to include a 
visit to the ostrich-farm close by, and also to catch 
a glimpse of the Virgin's tree en route. 

Early in my residence in the Nile metropolis I 
evolved a project for removing to Cairo the superb 
obelisk standing near the river's bank at Luxor, and 
if possible having the expense defrayed by a few 

48 



In Fascinating Cairo 

wealthy compatriots finding health and recreation 
under Egyptian skies. First I sought the opinion 
of a New-Yorker, proprietor of a great newspaper, 
on the subject. Accustomed to seeing the pros and 
cons of a question at a glance, with natural shrewd- 
ness tempered by much diplomatic experience,^ he 
foresaw in a minute more obstacles to the project 
than I had discovered in a month's consideration 
of the scheme. The engineering problems of bring- 
ing a monolith seventy-five feet long and weighing 
two hundred and twelve tons several hundred miles 
down the Nile, and reerecting it in Abdin Square, 
had chiefly interested me. My New York friend 
predicted an avalanche of reproach from the whole 
civilized world, that would surely be started directly 
the matter was made public. " It will not do at 
all," he said, in summing up. A Chicago friend, 
on the other hand, pronounced the scheme a good 
one. " Put me down for five hundred dollars to- 
ward the expense; and I can get a dozen more 
Chicagoans to give the same," he added. 

In time I was forced to admit that the archaeolo- 
gists of France, Italy, England, and perhaps the 
United States, having provided their own countries 
with obelisks, would assail the suggestion to give 
dear old Cairo just one of the massive shafts that 
were indigenous to Egypt ; and I saw enough in the 
opinion of the astute New-Yorker to cool my ardor 
and cause me to abandon the plan that sentiment 
had suggested. But I cannot help thinking that the 
capital of Egypt is entitled to an obelisk. How 
graceful the act if some great city, in which the 

51 



Present-Day Egypt 

transplanted granite of Assuan is yielding to the 
ravages of climate, would return to the country of 
the Pharaohs one of the priceless monuments of 
which it has been deprived ! 

No picture of Cairo that does not include the 
soldier can be considered complete, for the military 
aspect of the city is in almost aggressive evidence. 
When there is no campaign calling the troops to 
the Sudan, from six to nine thousand men are 
quartered in the capital. Nile palaces, khedival 
apartments in the citadel, and straggling pink bar- 
racks at Abbassieh, shelter English regiments; 
while tucked in everywhere, even extending miles 
out of Cairo to the canvas city on the desert road 
to Suez, are Egyptian soldiers of all degrees of 
color and of every class. And what a variety of 
costumes! There are Arab lancers in uniforms 
of light blue, almost esthetic in shade ; members of 
the camel corps and Sudanese infantry regiments 
of the blackest of black men, wearing kaki costumes 
of the color of the desert ; and men of other arms of 
the military establishment, in the smartest of white 
clothes. 

By company or regiment, soldiers are so fre- 
quently marched through the streets that the visi- 
tor might believe Cairo to be a vast military camp. 
Martial music is the adjunct of every function and 
every anniversary, religious and festive. Drum 
and fife corps, full military bands, some of them 
mounted, parade daily, playing frequently the 
beautiful khedival hymn. It is a part of the 
scheme of administration to keep the soldier in evi- 

52 



In Fascinating Cairo 

dence, impressing the simple native with the im- 
portance of the army, in which he must serve, 
however reluctant. The obverse of this display is 
the recompense of the soldier— five cents a day for 
five years. Egyptian soldiers are well disciplined 
and make a fine appearance on parade. Their 
comrades recruited from the region south of As- 
suan, forming the so-called Sudanese regiments, 
are fearless fighters, but lack the smartness of ap- 
pearance essential to reviews and dress-parades. 
The superior officers of the khedival army are 
Englishmen, " loaned " by the British War Office, 
and paid by the Egyptian government twice as 
much as their services under the British flag would 
bring. A captain in his regiment in England is a 
colonel in Egypt, and a lieutenant is a captain or 
major. 

It hardly required the victory of the Anglo- 
Egyptian expedition, in 1898, to prove G-eneral 
Kitchener, sirdar (commander-in-chief) of the 
Egyptian army, to be a remarkable man and a 
great soldier. Those familiar with the official life 
of recent years in Egypt knew this. Their atten- 
tion was drawn to him by the expedition against 
the Mahdi, when the hope of Grordon's release from 
beleaguered Khartum was enlisting the sympathies 
of the world. Disastrous as the expedition was. 
Kitchener emerged from the campaign with an 
established reputation as a soldier of infinite re- 
source, vigor, and brilliant strategy, which, com- 
bined with his knowledge of the customs and dia- 
lects of the Sudan, stamped him as England's best 

53 



Present-Day Egypt 

desert fighter. In command of the mounted troops 
at the battle of Toski, in 1889, young Kitchener 
headed off the great dervish general, Njumi, who 
had annihilated Hicks's army, and who despised 
Egyptian soldiers, compelling him to stand, fight, 
and be crushed. Rapidly ascending the grades 
thereafter. Kitchener in a few years found himseK 
the sirdar of the khedival army. 

To Kitchener belongs the credit of organizing 
and training the new army, recruited from the fel- 
laheen of the country. To build up an effective 
force from the same peasants who had fled before 
the Mahdist warriors, who stopped in their flight 
to kneel on the ground and stretch forth their necks 
to the sword, was a task calculated to dishearten an 
ordinary man ; but to Kitchener and his assistants 
this obstacle only quickened their determination to 
attain success. To accomplish the end crowning 
their efforts required almost a reconstruction of the 
Egyptian nature. Had Kitchener and his aides not 
triumphed in this, the Egyptian army could never 
have driven back its old-time foes from Firket, 
from Dongola, from Berber, and finally from 
Omdurman itself. Yet the heroes of Omdurman 
were the brothers of the cravens who made the 
name Tel-el-Kebir a synonym for all that is cow- 
ardly. And only sixteen years had intervened be- 
tween the two battles ! After the routing of the 
Khalifa's army no fair-minded person can criticize 
the fighting capacity of the son of the Nile, when 
well led. It used to be the fashion to sneer at him 
as a warrior, and not without reason. Even now 

54 



In Fascinating Cairo 

he is not a perfect soldier; but Spartan virtues 
must not be looked for from a nation of Helots. 

The resourceful Kitchener won his spurs in Egypt. 
When the British government comprehended its 
task in South Africa, those managing the war turned 
for aid to the dashing sirdar of the Egyptian army, 
who had avenged Gordon and recaptured the 
Sudan. Lord Kitchener's campaign against the 
Boers was perplexing and difficult ; but he was vic- 
torious, and a viscountcy and a parliamentary 
grant were his reward. This valiant Irishman, one 
of the greatest soldiers of his time, is now in com- 
mand of the British military establishment in India. 

The British army of occupation, which is inde- 
pendent of the Egyptian army, is in Egypt on 
financial terms liberal to the Egyptians, for the 
khedival government pays only the difference be- 
tween the cost of home and foreign service, being 
less than half a million dollars yearly for the forty- 
five hundred men composing this contingent. Usu- 
ally about three thousand Britishers are kept in 
Cairo ; but, on occasions when there has been fric- 
tion between the khedive and the British adminis- 
trators, these have been countermarched so inge- 
niously as to give the impression that ten times as 
many redcoats were there. The English officers 
lend much to a winter's gaiety. Courageous fellows, 
trained to conquer, no season is complete that does 
not add to their conquests those of the ball-room. 
"Scarlet fever" is in the atmosphere of Cairo 
breathed by the girl visitor, but is seldom serious 
or lasting. 

55 



Present-Day Egypt 

The diurnal procession of young women to the 
Nile bank just before the going down of the sun, 
to obtain the water required for the evening and 
early morning in their homes, presents a beautiful 
picture of womanly grace. These Eebeccas hold 
themselves erect and walk with superlative grace 
and majesty. If a promenading Fifth Avenue girl 
could exhibit half the naturalness she would be 
the envy of every spectator. Egyptian girls begin 
early to perform their share of the work of the 
home, and at seven or eight years commence to 
carry half -filled water-jars, and at twelve think 
nothing of balancing a full half -hundredweight on 
their heads, walking leisurely homeward, chatting 
with neighbors bent on the same mission, and dis- 
cussing the gossip of the neighborhood with un- 
concealed relish. For thousands of years their 
ancestors did the same ; but they carried the water- 
jars represented in biblical pictures. The present 
generation, discarding these, prefers the square 
two-gallon tins in which Standard Oil has come to 
Egypt. They are lighter than the pottery jars, and 
if the modern Rebecca becomes excited in discus- 
sion, the petroleum tin never breaks in its fall. 

Every petroleum tin coming to Egypt finds a use 
in the daily life of the people. The "slates" of 
school-boys are but sides of oil tins, on which they 
write their sums and quotations from the Koran 
with reed pens. The petroleum tins from America 
supply tinsmiths of the bazaars with material from 
which they fashion lantern-frames, household uten- 
sils, ornaments, and even bird-cages and traveling- 

S6 




WOMEN OF THE NILE. 



In Fascinating Cairo 

boxes for the peasantry. Not a scrap is wasted. 
To discover that dates purchased at up-Nile land- 
ings are packed in boxes on the bottoms of which 
are impressed such legends as " Best American," 
" Standard," and " 95 Degrees Pure," may be star- 
tling to fastidious tourists. 

The great school of the Mohammedan world is 
one of Cairo's important sights ; but few travelers 
are aware of its interest, and not one in a hundred 
visits it. The Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Nile 
are too absorbing for tourists to remember that in 
the same wondrous city exists the largest and old- 
est university in the world — El-Azhar, meaning 
" the splendid." Constantinople may be regarded 
as the official head of the great religion of Islam, 
but Cairo for nine hundred years has been the edu- 
cational center, and if one wishes to attain the 
summit of Mussulman learning he must attend the 
classes of this collegiate establishment. Unless one 
be familiar with Arabic and knows where to look 
among musty books and manuscripts in the Egyp- 
tian Library, it is very difficult to get reliable in- 
formation regarding this wonderful mosque-college. 

The claim of possessing the oldest university has 
often been made for Oxford, Paris, or Bologna, but 
the founding of their ancient seats of learning is 
legendary as to dates, while the records of El-Azhar 
are clear from the year 975. Whether it is really 
a " university " in our meaning can be more ap- 
propriately questioned. It is widely different from 
Harvard and Yale, but wise men of the East have 
ever termed it a university. 

59 



Present-Day Egypt 

Years ago it was difficult and disagreeable to view 
the interior of this great school that draws scholars 
from the remotest lands where the Koran is read. 
Now the formalities are simple and easily complied 
with, and the presence of strangers is scarcely 
noticed. From the hotel quarter it is but a fifteen- 
minute drive to El-Azhar. One passes through 
that marvelous street of shops, the Mouski, and 
turning oif, forces his way through the narrow 
lane known as the " Street of the Booksellers," 
where Arab workmen are binding curious-looking 
volumes, seated cross-legged on the floor of tiny 
box-like shops, and with a surging conglomeration 
of humanity, camels, and braying donkeys passing 
not two feet away. This brings one to the " Bar- 
bers' Gate," about which are always to be seen stu- 
dents having their heads so closely shaved as to 
leave no suggestion of hair. 

The structure, too often restored to leave any in- 
dication of the original building, surrounds a large 
open court with arcades on every side. The lofty 
minarets are fine examples of Eastern art. The 
pavement is of marble, much worn in places, and 
everywhere polished by constant use. There are 
seven entrances, each with a name as singular as 
that where the barbers congregate. El-Azhar is so 
surrounded by houses that very little can be seen 
of it externally, and the building is almost destitute 
of architectural embellishment. 

The enormous square court is bordered with por- 
ticos, each divided into various compartments for 
the separate use of students of different nations. 

60 



In Fascinating Cairo 

One, for example, is for those who come from 
Algeria, another for those from Morocco, one for 
Indians, one for Nubians, one for Turks, and so on. 
There is a compartment even for students from the 
holy city of Mecca, where the prophet Mohammed 
is buried, and there are divisions for scholars rep- 
resenting different sections of Egypt, 

There is a department for blind pupils, as well, 
for whom special instructors and funds are pro- 
vided. It is a strange fact that these unfortunates 
are peculiarly turbulent and fanatical. If they be- 
lieve their rights invaded, or their food not good, 
they give way to fury and attack any one within 
reach. If aware that an " unbelieving Christian " 
is looking at them, their resentment becomes 
offensively apparent. 

Followers of the prophet hold different views in 
regard to their theology, as do different denomina- 
tions of Christians. There are four great ortho- 
dox sects of Mohammedans, — Shafeites, Malekites, 
Hanefites, and Hambalites, — and all are represented 
in El-Azhar. An American would think it a queer 
place of learning, for nowhere is there a desk or a 
chair, and masters and pupils appear to go about 
everything backward. Before they cross the 
threshold in entering the place they remove their 
shoes, but always keep their heads covered; and 
all books read from right to left, the first leaf 
being, according to our way of thinking, the last. 

There are more than ten thousand scholars and 
two hundred and twenty-five masters, and the pe- 
riod of instruction may be indefinitely extended, 

6i 



Present-Day Egypt 

even for a lifetime ; but from three to six years is 
the usual course. One may see old and grizzled 
men there, as well as children of four years. The 
institution is so richly endowed and owns such 
valuable property— for few true Mohammedans of 
fortune die without leaving something to El-Azhar 
of Cairo — that no scholar is compelled to pay any- 
thing, although many, from choice, contribute to 
the expenses. 

The masters get no pay, but receive liberal al- 
lowances of food. Those of certain degree once 
a week draw several hundred loaves of bread,— a 
traditional custom, — and these loaves presumably 
find their way into outside shops and are sold. A 
master usually teaches in odd hours at private 
houses, reads the Koran at weddings and funerals, 
copies books, or holds a petty office of a religious 
character to which a small salary is attached. 
Wealthy students voluntarily help the masters to 
live. The head master, known as the Sheik El- 
Azhar, is chosen from the faculty for his superior 
knowledge and holiness, and in the eyes of the faith- 
ful occupies a position not many degrees less than 
that of the khedive. 

Some of the sheiks are men of marvelous learn- 
ing, but independence of thought is never found 
among them. Progressiveness is discouraged as 
a dangerous tendency. Masters and pupils learn 
only what may be found in books centuries old, 
and religion pervades every branch of study. Stu- 
dents who come from abroad toil for years to learn 
the Arabic grammar, after which they take up re- 

62 



In Fascinating Cairo 

ligious science, with the Koran as text-book. Then 
follows jurisprudence, religious and secular. Lit- 
erature, syntax, philosophy, prosody, logic, and 
intricacies of the Koranic teaching as directed to 
an upright life, round out the course. 

In lieu of a professor occupying a "chair" of 
any high-sounding " ology," he may be said to hold 
such and such a pillar, for when lecturing he sits on 
a sheepskin rug at the base of a stone column, with 
his students squatted in a half-circle before him. 
Nearly three hundred marble pillars support the 
roof of the porticos and such portions of El-Azhar 
as are not open to the sky, and each is a "class- 
room" for some particular subject. Pupils listen 
with rapt attention, taking part in the discussion 
of a theme so intently as to be oblivious of the 
presence of Christian spectators. A lecture fin- 
ished, they respectfully kiss the hand of their in- 
structor and hasten to another class to become 
absorbed in further study. 

Equality seems to be characteristic of the univer- 
sity. Outward evidences of superiority and posi- 
tion are unimportant, for the son of the pasha or 
bey, in robes of silk, sits side by side with peasant 
youths clothed scantily in coarse cotton. Occa- 
sionally a green turban is seen, indicating that its 
wearer has made a pilgrimage to the holy city, or 
that his family is believed to be descended from the 
prophet. Rich and poor alike perform at stated 
intervals the purifying ablutions at the fountains 
within the inclosure, and all prostrate themselves 
in prayer many times a day. This they do when- 

63 



Present-Day Egypt 

ever the spirit moves them, although at fixed hours 
all pray in unison, with heads invariably turned 
toward the " Kibla," the niche in the largest assem- 
bly-room, indicating the direction of Mecca. 

A thousand or two youths actually live within 
the walls of El-Azhar. They partake of their 
simple meals when the spirit moves them. Their 
food is exceedingly plain and inexpensive. A 
bowl of lentil soup, a flat loaf or cake of bread, 
and a handful of garlic or perhaps dates, are enough 
to attract a group of school-fellows, over which 
they discuss affairs and joke as youths do elsewhere. 
To needy students nine hundred loaves of bread 
are distributed each day. 

The great quadrangle presents a picture to be 
rivaled nowhere in the world. Singly and in 
groups, students sit on their skin rugs, earnestly 
toiling over lessons. No matter how scorching the 
sun's rays, if the impulse seizes them they stretch at 
full length on the pavement, enveloped in their 
long outer garments, and tranquilly sleep. Pupils 
and professors step over and around them, always 
respecting their slumber. Cats without number, 
that seem to belong to the place, hobnob with the 
boys upon terms of perfect harmony; but dogs, 
being " unclean " by Koranic teaching, are never 
permitted by the doorkeepers to enter the sacred 
precinct. Sellers of bread and water pass freely 
among the studying thousands, always careful not 
to disturb sleepers, and here and there students 
may be seen mending their garments, perhaps 
washing and drying them in the sun. 

64 



In Fascinating Cairo 

Juvenile pupils are taught little but the Koran. 
Day after day their masters beat it into them, not 
infrequently aided by a palm-branch, the Oriental 
equivalent of the birch. The youngsters sway back 
and forth and sidewise in concert when reciting. 
The sheik, perhaps, knows less about the printed 
page than the boys, but to him the Koran is so 
familiar that he is able to detect the slightest error 
of his class. On his part " reading " is a feat of 
memory, and should a professor of higher grade 
refer him to the book, he would most likely claim 
to be suffering from weak eyes, and request a stu- 
dent-teacher to read for him. The urchins are as 
industrious as beavers. When far enough advanced 
to write, favorite quotations from the Koran, such 
as, " There is no God but Grod, and Mohammed is 
his prophet," and "I testify that Mohammed is 
God's apostle," are given them for exercises. 

An Azhar student is always under the super- 
vision of the school authority. In roaming about 
the streets of Cairo, should he misbehave, the police 
could only detain him until an official be sum- 
moned from El- Azhar to take him into custody. 
This system of proctorship is in fact the same as 
at the English universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Because an Azhar scholar has immunity 
from military service, it is suspected that many 
young men are enrolled as students for no other 
purpose than to escape the life of a soldier — to 
most Mohammedans an undesirable calling. 

In the school year there is no definite recess ; but 
during the month of Ramadan and on the occasion 

65 



Present-Day Egypt 

of the several religious feasts there are holidays, 
amounting in the aggregate to the long summer 
vacation so dear to the western- world boy. El- 
Azhar students are up with the sun for the first 
prayer of the day. By midday their work in the 
university is finished. Apparently Azhar youths 
have few amusements or recreations. Base-ball, 
foot-ball, cane-rushes, and boat-racing have yet 
to be brought to their consideration. They have, 
of course, their diversions, but what they may be 
is a mystery to the onlooker. A singular tradition 
associated with this renowned seat of learning is 
that, although practically without roof, no bird, 
not even the inquisitive sparrow, ever ventures 
within. 

The Egyptian Museum, still in its youth as a 
national institution, contains a unique collection 
of antiquities, ranking with the world's important 
treasures. It was Mariette's marvelous energy and 
persistence that awakened Egyptians to the pro- 
priety of preserving the souvenirs of their great 
ancestors. His efforts first bore fruit in the mu- 
seum at Bulak, and the promulgation of a decree 
establishing governmental control of antiquities. 
Up to that time Egypt had been prolific ground 
for European museums, and for half a century 
scarcely a vessel sailed from Alexandria that carried 
nothing for the British Museum or the Louvre. 
The Eosetta Stone, even, revealing the secret of 
the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians, that had 
been forgotten for fourteen centuries, was allowed 
to be removed from the country where it unques- 

66 










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In Fascinating Cairo 

tionably belonged, to become an exhibit of the 
British Museum. 

The fame of the Bulak collection became world- 
wide with the transfer from Der el-Bahari of the 
mummies of Rameses the Great and many of his 
royal predecessors and successors. The storing of 
these priceless objects in the trumpery Bulak build- 
ings, small and inflammable, awakened the govern- 
ment to the need for better quarters. Then the 
collection was moved across the Nile to the palace 
of Gizeh. There, in a few years, it grew with such 
rapidity, through the frequent finds of valuable 
sarcophagi, statues, papyri, and stelee, that a popu- 
lar demand for a fire-proof structure arose, and in 
1897 the khedive laid with much ceremony the 
corner-stone of a great building near Kasr el-Nil, in 
Cairo, where the bodies of the kings, the antiquities, 
the wonderful jewelry unearthed a few years since 
at Dashur,— equal in design and finish to anything 
a Tiffany of to-day can fashion,— and all the mar- 
velous articles, are now deposited, there to remain, 
it is hoped, forever. The building is a fitting 
monument to the labors of Mariette, Maspero, Gre- 
baut, the two Brugsches, and De Morgan. 

There is no more interesting ceremony in Cairo 
than the annual cutting of the Khalig, in the early 
days of August. When the Nile begins to rise, its 
height is daily chanted through the streets, until it 
reaches sixteen cubits on the ancient Nilometer at 
the southern end of the island of Roda. This mark 
reached, the Khalig el-Masri, the old canal that 
flows through the heart of Cairo, is opened. Up 

69 



Present-Day Egypt 

to this time it is dry, and, full or empty, it is little 
more than a sanitary abomination in these days; 
but in former times, when the Nile was high enough 
to flow down its bed, it was taken by the people as 
proof that the yearly flood was coming, and that 
the kindly fruits of the earth would quickly follow. 

The head of the Khalig, on the road to Old Cairo, 
is closed by an earthwork embankment weeks be- 
fore the function. As the festival draws near, 
elaborate preparations are made for its celebration ; 
tents with innumerable lamps are erected on one 
side of the canal, while the opposite bank is lined 
with frames for fireworks. All the notables of the 
capital, civic, religious, and military, in gorgeous 
uniforms and canonicals, attend the festivity. The 
khedive, or a minister representing him, is there, 
as are the Sheik ul Islam (the highest dignitary 
of the Mohammedan faith), the Sheik el Bekri, and 
the acknowledged descendant of the prophet, the 
Sheik es Sadat. El-Azhar is represented by its 
learned priests and scribes, the Egyptian govern- 
ment by cabinet officers and secretaries, and for- 
eign powers by their diplomatic and consular offi- 
cials. The sirdar and his staff, judges from the 
international and native courts, and a sprinkling 
of functionaries from governmental departments 
and bureaus, complete the picturesque and hetero- 
geneous gathering. 

Egyptian regiments are turned out, salutes are 
fired, and by eight o'clock in the evening, when 
the ceremony officially commences, there may be 
twenty or thirty thousand spectators massed on 

70 



In Fascinating Cairo 

land and river. An inclosure is reserved for harem 
carriages, packed with closely veiled women, who 
can see but little of the entertainment. Out on the 
Nile, opposite the canal's mouth, is moored the hulk 
of a vessel, ablaze with lamps and fireworks, which 
is claimed to be emblematic of the time when the 
republic of Venice sent an envoy to witness the 
ceremony. The excitement increases with every 
discharge of fireworks or arrival of a grandee, and 
the populace shouts and dances itself into a frenzy 
of delight. Meanwhile scores of copper- skinned 
Egyptians are shoulder-deep in the Nile, cutting 
away the embankment with their mattocks, while 
bands play and the sky is zigzagged with rockets. 
The officials go home by midnight, but the common 
people keep up their merriment until morning. By 
seven o'clock most of the high functionaries have 
returned. Then the Sheik ul Islam solemnly thanks 
the Almighty, Allah the All-powerful, the All- 
merciful. He implores his blessing on the flood, 
and at a signal the bank is cut, the waters rush in, 
and hundreds of men and boys plunge into the 
torrent to scramble for the bright piasters thrown 
by the khedive's representative and the religious 
luminaries. It is claimed that the daily records of 
the Nilometer for a thousand years are preserved 
in the archives of Cairo. 

The Shubra Palace and grounds, now deserted and 
decaying, but once the home of viceregal splendor 
and voluptuousness, are worth all the trouble re- 
quired to secure permission to visit them. Shubra 
was the favorite residence of Mehemet Ali, from 

71 



Present-Day Egypt 

whom it descended to Halim Pasha, his son, but for 
many years has been the subject of acrimonious 
litigation among members of the khedival family, 
the magnificent place remaining unoccupied since 
Prince Hassan's demise. The umbrageous Shubra 
avenue, two miles in length, connecting Cairo and 
the palace, was beloved by generations of gay 
people, until the oval Ghizereh drive became 
the Rotten Row of the Egyptian capital. From 
that moment the decline of the Shubra drive was 
rapid, until in these days it attracts very few Cai- 
renes. The palace has that look of absenteeism so 
suggestive of lawsuits, and the fine villas lining the 
roadway from Cairo are in great part tenantless as 
well. 

Standing close to the Nile, with the Pyramids in 
plain view, the palace seems worthy of occupancy. 
Its situation is not rivaled by any other princely 
home in the country, surely; but it is probably 
permanently dismantled. The gardens are still 
magnificent, rich with tropical plants and trees, 
and very extensive. The gem of the place is the 
wonderful kiosk, hidden from sight by groves of 
orange-, sycamore-, and lebbek-trees. It is a curi- 
ous structure, covering an acre or more, and was 
once resplendent with decorations of the Italian 
Renaissance school. These are now peeling off, the 
silken hangings of the corner rooms almost fall into 
shreds from their own weight, the tortoise-shell- 
inlaid billiard-cues are succumbing to the warping 
hand of time, and the fresco-portraits of Mehemet 
All and Ibrahim are almost unrecognizable. 

72 



In Fascinating Cairo 

This kiosk was a favorite plaything of Mehemet 
Ali, and its walls have screened from the know- 
ledge of the world many orgies of the Eastern sort, 
in which fair women played important parts. A 
special pastime of the great despot, affording him 
the keenest enjoyment, was to collect together the 
ladies of the harem, perhaps a hundred at once, 
divide them into boating parties, and have them 
paddled into the middle of the lakelet within the 
kiosk. Then, at his signal, the eunuchs would 
overturn the boats, precipitating the lovely freight, 
screaming and scrambling, into the water, while 
their lord and master was convulsed with delight 
and laughter. It amused the viceroy more than 
any ]pas of his odalisks. 

The name "Egyptian cigarette," applied to the 
article established as an adjunct to fashionable and 
club life, is, strictly speaking, a misnomer, for no 
tobacco is grown in the country; in fact, culti- 
vation of the plant has been since 1890 forbidden 
by khedival decree. " Cigarettes made in Egypt " 
would be the truthful description. Practically all 
the tobacco comes from Turkey, where it is shipped 
chiefly from Kavala, Latakia, and Yenidje. The 
paper comes from Austria and Italy, and the major 
part of the labor employed is Greek, except for 
common cigarettes, which are made by native work- 
men. The manufacture is very largely in the 
hands of Greeks, and so deeply founded is the belief 
that Europe and America will buy only Egyptian 
cigarettes made by a Greek firm that several Cairo 
manufactories are carried on under trade-names 

7S 



Present-Day Egypt 

invented or borrowed in pursuance of this strange 
notion. 

The tobacco used is not adulterated in any way, 
it is claimed, but is skilfully blended to acquire the 
desired strength and flavor. The best leaves are 
used for export orders, the common grades being 
consumed in Egypt, where nearly every man, wo- 
man, and child is a constant smoker of cigarettes. 
Custom-house returns show that of the tobacco en- 
tering the country only about one third is exported 
in manufactured form, thus indicating the enor- 
mous home consumption, and giving a suggestion 
of the quantity leaving Egypt in the baggage of 
travelers. Machinery is not employed in any way, 
except for cutting the tobacco, and it is said that 
the workmen wield sufficient power to render the 
adoption of machinery for making cigarettes a step 
too dangerous to be contemplated. The trade is 
centered in Cairo, where there are nearly a hundred 
export establishments. 

The Egyptian cigarette has such an enviable 
position among the luxuries of the world that it is 
difficult to believe that this flourishing trade is of 
very recent growth ; but it is, in fact, one of the 
many indirect advantages accruing to the country 
from the impetus imparted by the invasion of for- 
eign enterprise. 

The Cairo-made cigarette is valued above all 
others manufactured in Egypt. The same tobacco 
may be used and as skilful workmen employed in 
other places, but nowhere else is the same delicacy 
of flavor achieved. It is claimed by experts that 

76 



In Fascinating Cairo 

the cause of the superiority of the Cairo cigarette 
over that of Alexandria or Port Said, is the super- 
dry climate of the capital, which is better adapted 
to the fabrication of cigarettes than is the humid 
atmosphere of the sea-coast. The constant flow of 
tourists has been the chief means of spreading the 
taste for the Egyptian cigarette, acquired in the 
land of the Nile, and its delicate aroma is familiar, 
in consequence, not only in America and England, 
but in far corners of the earth. All tobacco enter- 
ing Egypt pays a duty equal to one dollar per kilo- 
gram, and a drawback equal to fifty cents a kilo- 
gram is allowed on cigarettes sent out of the 
country. 



17 



CHAPTER III 

ALEXANDRIA, SEAT OF EGYPTIAN COMMERCE 

A LEX ANDRIA is a city with a past, truly ; but 
-lJL renowned as it was in the world's early his- 
tory for intellectual development and political posi- 
tion, I regard its present-day aspect, as the one 
great mart of the southern coast of the Mediter- 
ranean and entrepot of a nation's commerce, to be 
more important still. Cairo looks old, but com- 
paratively is not ; Alexandria has the appearance 
of newness, but was twelve hundred years old 
before the first stone of Cairo was laid. This is 
paradoxical by suggestion. 

The approach to Alexandria from the sea is not 
prepossessing, and the steamer is within ten miles 
or so of the harbor before any portion of the low- 
lying coast can be discerned. The object first seen 
on the horizon, looking like a distant sail, proves to 
be the Phare, the direct descendant of the earliest 
lighthouse in the world. Pompey's Pillar next 
comes into view on the left, followed by the dome 
of Ras-el-Teen Palace, Napoleon's windmills at Mex, 
and the rising ground beyond Ramleh. By this time 
the coast-line is uplifted, and Alexandria is in sight. 

In half an hour the Arab pilot is on board, the 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

vessel rounds the great breakwater, and the trav- 
eler is actually in Egypt— the new Egypt. The 
motley scene meeting the eye on getting ashore 
vividly indicates the transition that is in progress 
from the half -barbarism of the East to the civiliza- 
tion of the West, and in its contrasts— its wealth 
and its squalor, its busy new life rising like a tide 
over its old conservatism— the newcomer has a fair 
symbol of the actual Egypt. Modern methods of 
procedure enable you to pass the custom-house with 
little loss of time, system having taken the place 
of bakshish as an accelerating agent. The drive 
to the hotel, the Khedival or Abbat's, takes one 
first through narrow native streets and alleys, then 
into the vast public square of Mehemet Ali, with 
Italianate structures of imposing size on every side, 
then through streets of modern shops, and your first 
drive in the city of Alexander and Cleopatra is at 
an end. The sapphire sky, balmy atmosphere, and 
palm-trees overtopping the houses, tell you that 
you are in Egypt ; but the buildings, the shops and 
their wares, suggest a city in Italy or southern 
France— perhaps Naples, possibly Marseilles. 

The people in the streets and their chatter affirm 
that you are over the threshold of the Orient, how- 
ever. There are Arabs, Turks, Syrians, Copts, 
Nubians, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Albanians, 
Levantines, Italians, Maltese, French, many Eng- 
lish, some Austrians — in fact, a variety of human- 
ity, from which a perfect congress of nations might 
be drafted. The appearance of the people removes 
any doubt of the whereabouts of the traveler, for it 

79 



Present-Day Egypt 

is only in Alexandria that this endless variety may 
be found. Cairo, like Washington, is official and 
administrative in all its attributes— everything, 
perhaps, but commercial ; Alexandria, on the other 
hand, is as exclusively commercial as Liverpool. 

In the selection of the site to which the great 
Macedonian was to give his name, Alexander 
proved himself to possess the unerring instinct of 
engineering genius. A less able man might have 
chosen the natural harbor of one of the Nile's 
mouths. But Alexander evidently was aware of 
the current sweeping the whole northern shore of 
Africa from west to east, and his foresight told him 
that a harbor to serve as a port for his projected 
Eastern dominions must be west of the several 
mouths of the great river, to be safe from the 
accumulation of the alluvial soil ever sweeping into 
the Mediterranean. It was this soil-laden wash 
that choked the old Pelusiac harbor beyond Port 
Said, and that to-day, in spite of bars and break- 
waters, makes the task of keeping the entrance to 
the Suez Canal open for ships of deep draft a diffi- 
cult one. Hence the wisdom of Alexander the 
Great, and the foundation of Alexandria in the 
year 332 b. c. 

The diminutive island of Pharos must have been 
employed as a shelter for shipping in Alexander's 
reign, and the first of his lieutenants to wear the 
crown of Egypt, Ptolemy Soter, constructed thereon 
the Pharos tower, famed in history as the father of 
lighthouses. It is recorded that this tower was 
nearly six hundred feet high, and that on its top 

80 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

beacon-fires were burned by night as a guide and 
warning to mariners. This pile of masonry, of 
greater proportions than the Washington Monu- 
ment, reared when the world was young, naturally 
was included in the list of wonderful structures; 
it was termed the seventh wonder of the earth. 
Ptolemy Soter likewise connected Pharos with the 
city by the Heptastadium causeway, bringing the 
island within easier reach, and dividing the inter- 
vening space into two harbors. The action of sea- 
currents for centuries has supplemented building 
operations from time to time, and the causeway has 
so long been a feature of the city that few dwellers in 
modern Alexandria are aware of its artificial origin. 
Ptolemy Soter was also responsible for making 
Alexandria a seat of learning, and for the creation 
of the world-famous library and museum. He 
brought there many of the wise men of Europe, 
and through his efforts Alexandria for years 
occupied the leading place in literature, philosophy, 
and science. His son and successor, Ptolemy Phil- 
adelphus, continued the wise policy, and Ptolemy 
Euergetes made his reign famous for the encour- 
agement given to learning. This king brought to 
Alexandria, among other great personages, Aris- 
tophanes of Byzantium, who became keeper of the 
library. When the Romans laid siege to the city 
in Caesar's time, both library and museum were 
ruthlessly burned. As a foundation for a second 
library, Antony presented Cleopatra with the Per- 
gamenian manuscripts, two hundred thousand in 
number. The collection grew rapidly. Copies of 

83 



Present-Day Egypt 

works of importance were made at public expense, 
and it is stated that every book that came into the 
city was seized and kept, a copy only being handed 
to the owner. Scholars from many lands made 
Alexandria their abiding-place, to enjoy the bene- 
fits of the priceless books and parchments. Strabo 
and Euclid studied there. When the fanatical calif 
Omar overran Egypt, in the seventh century, he 
proclaimed that, as the Koran contained everything 
that man should know, other books had no right to 
exist. Consequently he decreed that the second 
great library to bring renown to Alexandria should 
forthwith be destroyed. It is recorded that seven 
hundred thousand manuscripts and volumes in all 
languages were apportioned to the city's four thou- 
sand public bathing establishments, with which the 
fires of these were fed for six months. This was, 
indeed, the most crushing blow ever inflicted on 
literature. 

Ruled now by Persian, now by Roman, now by 
Gi-reek, and enervated by vice and luxury, and with 
the loss of population and prestige that preceded 
the stagnation and decay spreading over the cen- 
turies from Cleopatra to Mehemet Ali, Alexandria's 
varying welfare could not be detailed within the 
limits of a sketchy chapter. The death-blow to its 
fortunes was the discovery, in 1497, of the passage 
round the Cape of Good Hope, which changed the 
direction of the commerce of the East. 

The Alexandria that visitors see dates only from 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the 
advent of Mehemet Ali. Taking the leaderless 

84 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

soldiers of the shattered Turkish supremacy in 
Egypt, who had retired, with sulky scorn from 
Alexandria to a quarter of their own, on what once 
was the island of Pharos, Mehemet Ali united them 
with his Albanian troops, and found he had then 
the unbreakable backbone of an army of fighters, 
few in number, it is true, but sufficiently powerful 
with his cunning to overthrow the Mamelukes rul- 
ing at Cairo. The fearless Rumelian then organized 
the Egyptian people, — Arabs and Nilots,— and by 
sheer genius welded into something approaching a 
nationality these discordant elements. The renais- 
sance of Egypt and the revival of Alexandria's 
fortunes date, consequently, from the coming of 
Mehemet Ali. He loved the city and made it his 
capital. 

His master mind recognizing the need of con- 
necting the seaport with the Nile, this autocrat 
traced a line fifty miles long on a map, and two 
hundred and fifty thousand fellaheen, working 
without pay or food from their dictator, in a year 
scooped out of the sand with their hands the trench 
known as the Mahmudiyeh Canal. Thirty thou- 
sand of the peasants died before the canal was 
completed, but it brought fresh water and a nation's 
commerce to Alexandria. 

As viceroy, Mehemet Ali sought to make Alex- 
andria great in trade. To this end, before provid- 
ing palaces, he improved the harbor and erected 
warehouses, docks, a dry-dock, and an arsenal. To 
accomplish these things, and to develop irrigation 
in the Delta, he had the assistance of Linant Pasha 

85 



Present-Day Egypt 

and other brilliant engineers, recruited in France. 
Although some of Mehemet All's successors have 
been woefully inert, all, with the exception of the 
first Abbas, have done something toward upbuild- 
ing Alexandria. The population has developed 
until, in the present year, it is computed to be 
three hundred and twenty-five thousand. Ismail 
had a superstitious fear that he was destined to die 
in Alexandria, and consequently passed little time 
there. The most conspicuous modern Egyptian 
buried in this commercial capital, where Archi- 
medes conceived his most useful inventions, and 
where St. Mark preached the gospel, is Viceroy 
Said. 

To-day Alexandria has broad avenues, theaters, 
clubs, and many other features, good and bad, of 
a flourishing city in Europe, and better-paved 
streets than most European towns. Ten or fifteen 
years since, the condition of the streets left so much 
to be desired that the leading export merchants 
took the matter in hand, and agreed to pay to the 
municipality a small fee on each bale of cotton and 
sack of grain or sugar shipped by them. The 
aggregate in a few years was sufficient to give 
every important thoroughfare a paving of stone 
blocks, and from the handsome residue a fire-boat 
and other needed adjuncts were donated to the 
city. All this was accomplished without taxing 
the people. 

In these times the harbor exhibits almost as 
great a variety of foreign flags as the crowd on 
the quays represents nationalities, More than 

86 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

twenty regular lines of steamers ply to and from 
Alexandria ; visiting men-of-war and yachts lie for 
weeks at a time in the harbor, and the life and 
movement are those of a great international sea- 
port. 

The harbor is protected by a sea-wall nearly 
two miles in length, constructed of more than 
twenty- six thousand square blocks of concrete, 
each weighing twenty-two tons, and is perfectly 
lighted. The well-protected haven, of a depth of 
twenty to sixty feet, and an area of eighteen hun- 
dred acres, thus formed, is supplemented by an 
inner port of perhaps one fourth the size. The 
harbor dues are considerable, but these, combined 
with the income of the country's railways and 
telegraphs, were pledged to European creditors 
demanding security when the national treasury 
had been depleted by Ismail's wild extravagance. 

Could the bronze statue of the founder of the 
dynasty, appareled in the Turkish costume of his 
time, and astride a horse of superb proportions, 
in the Place Mehemet Ali, be endowed with life, 
the G-reat Initiator might see endless processions 
of cotton-laden vehicles moving toward the docks. 
If such a return to life were possible, his mind 
might revert to the time when a friendly botanist 
found growing wild in a Cairene garden a few 
plants whose blossoms developed into fiber-filled 
bolls, which, the savant advised the viceroy, might 
be cultivated in Egypt on a large scale with great 
profit. This was the origin of cotton-culture there, 
representing in shipments from Alexandria now 

89 



Present-Day Egypt 

nearly a million bales in a season, and from this in- 
cident sprang the nation's principal industry. When 
civil war raged in the United States, and English 
mills were compelled to find fiber elsewhere for their 
looms, Egyptian cotton sold at a dollar a pound. 
In two years Alexandria waxed rich in conse- 
quence, and its wealth found expression in streets 
of Italianate business buildings and residences. 
Those that were smashed to atoms by the British 
bombardment in 1882 were replaced by larger and 
handsomer structures, still in the Italian style of 
architecture. 

One feature of the massacre of Europeans on 
that memorable July 11, 1882, and of the subse- 
quent sacking of the city, was peculiarly signifi- 
cant. The grand square of Mehemet Ali was 
wrecked from end to end, and its sidewalks ran 
with blood. But one thing was respected by the 
brutal mob, sparing no one, nothing, save this. 
Imperious Mehemet Ali sat there throughout all 
the strife on his Arab horse. The crowd suffered 
no one to molest it. Had it been an effigy of 
Ismail instead, it would have been destroyed by 
the fanatical, degraded ruffians at the outset of 
their orgy of blood. 

Apart from the splendid monolith miscalled 
Pompey's Pillar, and the catacombs, dating from 
the time of Constantine, of which there are remains 
of rare architectural symmetry, nothing exists in 
Alexandria to reward the search of the traveler 
with a fondness for antiquities. The pillar, erected 
in honor of Diocletian, and having nothing to do 

90 



Aleixandria, Seat of Commerce 

witli Pompey, is of the familiar red granite of 
Assuan. Some investigators believe that this 
Corinthian column was once an obelisk, and that 
it was rounded to its present form by the Romans, 
and, further, that its situation marks the site of 
the famous Serapeum. It is known to have been 
erected in the third century after Christ, to com- 
memorate the capture of the city by the Emperor 
Diocletian, after the rebellion of Achilleus. The 
statue which must have adorned its summit long 
since disappeared, leaving no trace to tell us whom 
it represented. The column's shadow falls to-day 
upon a dreary Arab cemetery — pathetic symbol of 
the buried glories of the metropolis it once graced. 

The two obelisks which Cleopatra or Caesar 
removed from the Temple of the Sun at Heliop- 
olis to adorn the Csesarium were lost to Alex- 
andria in Ismail's time. One, after lying prone for 
centuries where it fell, is in London ; the other in 
New York. 

To the south of Alexandria lies the extensive 
but shallow sheet of water known as Lake Mare- 
otis. It covers what was once a fertile plain, pos- 
sessing a lake upon which Alexandria depended 
for fresh water. In 1801, when a British force was 
conducting an operation before the city, then in the 
hands of Bonaparte's troops, it was deemed a good 
strategic expedient to cut off Alexandria's supply 
of fresh water. To accomplish this the English 
severed at Mex the neck of land separating the lake 
from the Mediterranean, thereby admitting the sea 
and flooding a hundred thousand acres of culti- 

91 



Present-Day Egypt 

vable soil, sacrificing many lives, and ruining- forty 
villages — and the climate of Alexandria. It was a 
wicked act, hardly justified by the needs of war- 
fare. It is a curious example of the irony of fate 
that monster English pumps and a staff of English 
engineers— paid for by the Egyptian government 
—are given constant employment to-day in keep- 
ing the salt water of Lake Mareotis within bounds, 
for no engineering resource can now prevent the 
percolation of the sea to the lower level of Mareotis. 
Engineering skill can only keep the water from 
overflowing still more valuable territory. A mil- 
lion and a half tons of water are pumped back into 
the Mediterranean every twenty-four hours. 

Ramleh is the only residential suburb of Alex- 
andria. It is easier to make the assertion than to 
describe the limits of the place. It has many titular 
subdivisions, but generically Ramleh may be said 
to stretch along the entire sea-front from Alex- 
andria to Abukir Bay, a dozen miles away. 
"Ramleh" is the native word for sand, and in 
this instance is applied with signal appropriate- 
ness. In summer all that portion of Cairo's official- 
dom unable to manage European leave of absence 
betakes itself en masse to the hotels and villas of the 
Alexandrian suburb, there to keep cool and inci- 
dentally assail the humid atmosphere by invidious 
comparison. Hundreds of Alexandria's business 
men reside throughout the year at Ramleh. Judges 
of the international courts, consuls, functionaries 
of every degree, bourse operators, and Jewish and 
Greek money magnates, find there peaceful repose. 

92 




FKEDEUIC C. I'EXFIELD, UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC AGENT AND 
CONSUL-GENERAL TO EGYPT, 1893-97. 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

A primitive line of railway, owned by Englishmen 
and very profitable, sets down passengers at several 
stations. Mustapha Pasha station accommodates 
the British soldiers housed in the old khedival 
palace, and St. Stephano station is the objective 
point of the Jiaut ton going to spend an evening at 
the casino, or have a cooling swim in the Mediter- 
ranean. When Alexandrians desire to celebrate, 
singly or collectively, they go to the Ramleh casino, 
and do it well. Pashas and others having no need 
for observing regularity of hours in town drive 
back and forth on the splendid road patronized by 
his Highness the Khedive when he passes to and 
fro between Montazah and Ras-el-Teen Palace. 

Besides being very convenient, this Egyptian 
Long Branch is exceedingly pleasant at all times. 
The blue sea, stretching to the horizon, is ever 
soothing to exhausted nerves, and in summer bears 
a refreshing inshore breeze with commendable regu- 
larity. In the mad race to get away from Egypt in 
the early summer, hundreds of people go farther 
and fare worse than if contenting themselves with 
the easily attainable comforts of Ramleh. 

Abukir possesses resources of interest amply 
rewarding a visit to this place where history has 
been made, not to inspect the insignificant village, 
but to view the bay where one of the greatest 
of naval engagements was contested. The semicir- 
cular bay is sm-rounded by obsolete forts and earth- 
works, many of whose guns are dismantled, and all 
of a type long ago discarded. A pleasant half-day 
may be passed about these forts, with lunch-basket 

95 



Present-Day Egypt 

at hand, viewing the scene of the battle of the Nile, 
and picturing in the mind's eye Lord Nelson's bril- 
liant manoeuvers, by which thirteen doughty French 
ships of the line were destroyed. 

There is a distinct admixture of Greek blood in 
the people of Alexandria, observable in many coun- 
tenances, and the Grreek colony is the largest of 
foreign origin dwelling in the great seaport. A 
considerable share of its financial and commercial 
business is conducted by Greeks, and innumerable 
names seen over shop doors recall the nomencla- 
ture of the classics familiar to every student. Some 
of the palatial homes of the city and its suburbs are 
those of Greek bankers and merchants, and there 
is an intimate intercourse between Alexandria and 
Athens. Love of the home country is a character- 
istic of these transplanted people, whose patriotism 
finds frequent expression in gifts to Athenian in- 
stitutions and causes. It is a boast of many Greeks 
in Alexandria that their ancestors have dwelt in 
Egypt since the days of Cleopatra ; that their coun- 
trymen were there before the advent of the Arabs, 
and have been there uninterruptedly longer than 
the people of any other nation. 

One can scarcely walk the historic streets of 
Alexandria without his thoughts dwelling at times 
upon the splendid woman who once ruled Egypt 
from that place, whose beauty enslaved all that be- 
held it, and caused the bravest generals to forsake 
the conquering missions that brought them from 
Rome, and let themselves be conquered by the 
irresistible charm of Cleopatra. Mere presence in 

96 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

the city once her capital marshals in memory all 
that one has read or seen depicted on stage or can- 
vas of the fascinating queen, and more than one 
visitor aimlessly strolls the streets pondering the 
problem of her nationality, and asking himself 
whether the tale of her death from the bite of an 
asp had its origin, like the William Tell narrative, 
in a popular work of an early romancist. The 
name haunts one everywhere. Even pleasure- 
boats in the harbor and cafes in important thor- 
oughfares record the name of Egypt's last queen, 
and cigarettes served with after-dinner coffee are 
called in her honor as well. 

Tarrying travelers discuss Cleopatra with each 
other, and with those whom they meet, as if she had 
been of a recent century. Guide-books assure them 
that she was but thirty-nine when she died by her 
own hand, that the tragedy preceded the Christian 
era by only thirty years, and that Alexandria was 
alike the city of her nativity and her entombment. 

There are Alexandrians sufficiently cultured to 
entitle their opinions to credence on most subjects, 
who insist that Cleopatra was a beauty of dusky 
face; some go so far as to insist that she was 
undeniably a Nubian, and point to the bas-reliefs 
of the temple of Hathor, at Denderah, in substan- 
tiation of their opinion. But no cultured Grreek 
will enter the lists in a debate jeopardizing for an 
instant the nationality of the great goddess of 
beauty, for he knows with as much certainty as he 
does the name of the present King of Greece that 
Cleopatra was the purest of pure Greek, a Ptolemy, 

97 



Present-Day Egypt 

and that her complexion was as fair as that of any 
Athenian belle to-day. The erudite Greek gets out 
his Plutarch — the historian most nearly contempo- 
rary with Cleopatra, and who might easily have 
talked with those who had heard her described — 
and points to chapters leaving as little doubt of the 
purity of her Greek blood as of her personal charm. 

The Denderah sculptures when analyzed, the 
erudite champion maintains with every show of 
reason, portray a face whose outline and charac- 
teristics are unmistakably Greek. Were the temple 
of Denderah not situated fairly near the Nubian 
frontier, no logical examiner could find a sug- 
gestion in the portraits that the queen was negroid. 
The shape of the nose proves to the contrary, and 
the bust of Cleopatra in the Capitol at Rome sup- 
ports the assertion. Furthermore, the Egyptian 
sculptors did not attempt to idealize. They sculp- 
tured with honest fidelity the faces they saw. In 
these up-Nile portraits the consummate mistress 
of the art of fascination wears a winning smile, but 
the figure of the queen is distorted. 

Painters, poets, novelists, writers of dramas, 
and actresses seem ever to have had in mind the 
idea that Cleopatra was a half-caste, in whom the 
charms of Europe and Africa were combined, a wo- 
man who ruled the world with the intellect of a 
thinker directing the arts of an odalisk. It requires 
little investigation, on the contrary, to learn that 
the great queen was, as her name suggests, a Greek 
of the Greeks, of pure and illustrious descent, and 
not an African. Gerome, Picou, Alma-Tadema, 

98 




CLEOPATRA (FROM THE TEMPLE OF DENDERAH). 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

Cabanel, Sichel, Grolleau, and other artists have 
exercised as much license in portraying the beau- 
tiful woman as Shakspere and less renowned poets 
have in describing her. 

The means employed by the baffled queen— too 
proud to return to Rome after Antony's self- 
destruction, to be exhibited in the festival cele- 
brating the triumph of Octavianus— to produce 
death unfortunately cannot be as directly dealt with 
as the question of her descent. In Alexandrian 
suburbs to-day are groves of fig-trees, whose fruit, 
arranged in flat baskets and covered with fig-leaves, 
is sold by the roadside by native lads, as it might 
have been in the time of Cleopatra. An occasional 
lizard, basking in the warm sunshine on the sand, 
which scm'ries away when footsteps approach, may 
have suggested the asp story to a writer of long 
ago, constructing a romantic epic or play. The 
theory of the poisonous reptile conveyed to the 
unhappy queen in a basket of figs is improbable. 
Cleopatra was too experienced in Eastern ways not 
to have understood the secret of poisons and have 
them at hand. The brother-husband, sharing with 
her the throne, had died from poison years before, 
under circumstances that indicated his murderess ; 
and, besides, a woman of her vanity would choose 
death from one of the destroying drugs known to 
her, rather than from the poison of the asp, dis- 
figuring in its agency of destruction. 

Many thousands of Mohammedans of the lower 
social grades in Alexandria, and for that matter 
throughout Lower Egypt, are slaves to the hashish 

lOI 

LofC. 



Present-Day Egypt 

habit. There is a law rigidly forbidding the impor- 
tation of this noxious product of Indian hemp, and 
the government employs every means for keeping 
it out of Egypt. Hundreds of miles of littoral to 
the west and east of Alexandria, that, were it not 
for hashish smuggling, would seldom be watched, 
are systematically patrolled by coast-guardsmen, 
and every foot of the Suez Canal is similarly under 
surveillance ; while port authorities at Alexandria, 
Rosetta, Damietta, and Port Said expend more 
energy in endeavoring to prevent the secret land- 
ing of hashish than all other articles declared by 
Egyptian law to be contraband. 

Notwithstanding these precautions, the cunning 
of the smugglers enables them to run the forbidden 
article across from islands of the Grrecian Archi- 
pelago, and land it in Egypt with a certainty per- 
mitting the demand for the compound to be 
regularly supplied. It is manufactured in many 
out-of-the-way places in the eastern Mediterranean, 
and its excessive value, once within reach of its 
devotees in Egypt, is enough to compensate those 
concerned in the trade for the occasional confisca- 
tion of a shipment. Many of the devices practised 
for getting it into the country are ingenious in the 
extreme. A visit to the little museum connected 
with the Alexandrian custom-house proves this. 
One may there see innocent-looking trunks and 
bulging piano-legs, the one with false bottoms and 
the other with capacious cavities, that were filled 
with hashish when investigated by the custom- 
house examiners. These are perhaps the simplest 

I02 



Alexandria, Seat of Commerce 

tricks resorted to by shippers of the illicit article. 
Many others more difficult to detect are to be seen 
in the curious collection. 

By means of confederates on the lookout, many 
a rubber bag and water-tight box of hashish finds 
its way ashore, on the Mediterranean beach or in 
the Suez Canal, nearly every night. The authorities 
cannot cope with the cunning of the aliens waxing 
fat from the Egyptian slaves to hashish. I have 
been assured that in both Alexandria and Cairo the 
cafes and other establishments where a smoke of 
hashish may be had number hundreds. The Koran 
strictly forbidding the use of liquors and wines, the 
mind of lower-class Mohammedans has seized the 
intoxicating hemp compound as an alternative. It 
is more debasing and injurious than strong drink, 
physicians claim, and often leads to insanity or 
idiocy. Alexandria, with its native population 
living in intimate relations with the offscourings 
of every Mediterranean land, has for generations 
been the headquarters of the use of hashish. 



03 



CHAPTER IV 

PARADOXICAL BUT EFFECTIVE ADMINISTEATION 

AMONG the nations of the earth Egypt stands 
J^ unique in history, and in unusual and para- 
doxical conditions. Mysterious and fascinating as 
it was to Strabo and Herodotus, so it is to the 
observer to-day, and especially to the winter visitor 
who endeavors in a brief season to fathom its 
wealth of archaeological wonders and its scheme 
of political administration. This last is nearly as 
difficult to understand as are the hieroglyphs of the 
monuments, for it has no equivalent in ancient or 
modern times. 

Nominally a province of the Ottoman empire, 
Egypt is autonomous, subject only to a yearly 
tribute to the Sultan of about three million five 
hundred thousand dollars. The title of its ruler 
means sovereign, or king, without qualification or 
limitation; yet the country is in large measure 
administered by Great Britain, standing in the 
capacity of trustee for creditors of her own and of 
several other nationalities as well. This trustee- 
ship is voluntary on England's part, and is forced 
upon the khedival government. 

The situation might not inaptly be compared 
104 



Paradoxical Administration 

to one by which, a farm is worked on shares by 
an important creditor, with both mortgagor and 
mortgagee reaping substantial benefit by the ar- 
rangement, and the farm yearly made more valu- 
able. This simile describes but one of the conditions 
contributing to the involved Egyptian situation. 
Another partnership is represented by the Interna- 
tional Debt Commission, in which Egypt has six 
partners— France, Germany, Russia, Austria, and 
Italy, as well as Great Britain. Each of these 
countries has a delegate at Cairo to watch the 
cash-box and collect from time to time a share of 
the country's receipts, in excess of actual running 
expenses, proportionate to the amount of Egyptian 
bonds held by his countrypeople. In this partner- 
ship Egypt would be described in legal phraseology 
as the " party of the first part," the six foreign com- 
missioners combining in the " party of the second 
part." 

Then comes a third copartnership, the Interna- 
tional Courts, in which Egypt figures but triflingly. 
Thirteen European powers and the United States 
of America have complete jurisdiction in these tri- 
bunals in actions involving property rights in which 
a European or American may be interested with 
other aliens or with Egyptians. In these " mixed " 
courts a foreigner can bring to the bar the Egyp- 
tian government, or its titular head, in an action 
involving property or monetary interest. 

If these conditions fail to complete a predicament 
remarkable in its complications, the ancient capit- 
ulations of Ottoman rulers, by which fourteen f or- 

105 



Present-Day Egypt 

eign governments, including the United States, 
have almost sovereign rights in Egypt, independent 
of local authority, will surely do so. The conces- 
sions of the Sublime Porte give to these nations 
as full control of their subjects or citizens as if 
in their own lands. The Egyptian government 
itself has no stronger control over its subjects. 
Thus an American, an Englishman, or a French- 
man, who can be proceeded against in property 
matters only in the international courts, can be 
apprehended and tried for a criminal offense solely 
by the consular authority of his government resi- 
dent in Egypt. 

It would tax the capacity of the proverbial Phila- 
delphia lawyer to understand the capitulations suffi- 
ciently to be able to impart their exact significance. 
I have known many wiseacres who could explain 
the legal status of the Debt Commission, give a 
comprehensible epitome of the jurisdiction of the 
mixed courts, or define the diplomatic niceties of 
difference between "occupation" and "protector- 
ate " ; but not one in a thousand can describe the 
Ottoman capitulations, beyond telling you that 
they date from this or that century, and more or 
less vaguely deal with the rights and privileges of 
Christians living within the Turkish realm. 

I am not claiming a knowledge superior to that 
of other seekers for light who take the time to ex- 
plore official works on treaties and wade through 
dozens of massive volumes on Oriental law. It is 
not difficult to learn that the first capitulation given 
by the Turkish empire to the United States of 

1 06 



Paradoxical Administration 

America was accepted by Congress and the Presi- 
dent in 1832 ; but this sort of international treaty- 
antedates America's discovery. 

The intercourse of the Christian world with the 
Mohammedan is not founded upon the law of 
nations. International law, as professed by the 
nations of Christendom, is the offspring of the com- 
munion of ideas subsisting between them, and is 
based upon a common origin and an almost identi- 
cal religious faith. Between the peoples of Islam 
and those of Europe and America there exists no 
such communion of ideas and principles from which 
a true international law could spring. Inasmuch 
as the propagation of Islam is the chief aim of all 
Moslems, perpetual warfare against Christians and 
other unbelievers, to convert them or subject them 
to the payment of tribute, was regarded as the most 
sacred duty of the Mohammedan. From his point 
of view the whole world is divided into two parts 
—the house of Islam, and the conglomerate mass 
of unbelievers. Yet the Moslem felt that perpetual 
war with the infidel was not possible, and that con- 
ventions should be made for the advantage of both. 

Commerce, the source of wealth and the means 
of satisfying some of the most imperative needs of 
mankind, could not be carried on without deviat- 
ing from the severity of the maxims that were pro- 
fessed. Either the destruction of one of the two 
peoples must have ensued, or else these maxims 
must be departed from, the Moslems saw. But a 
subterfuge was resorted to to escape the severe 
conditions, whereby a conflict with the doctrine of 

109 



Present-Day Egypt 

the law in its full vigor might be avoided, and the 
doctrine itself left intact. Treaty measures were 
thought of. But it would never do to call them 
treaties. The representative on earth of the pro- 
phet could never treat a Christian ruler as an equal. 
The sultans considered themselves the only sover- 
eigns of the earth ; all others deserved nothing but 
pity and toleration. Treaties could be entered into 
only with their equals, they argued. To their in- 
feriors only grants and favors were possible. 

So the word " capitulation," meaning letter of 
privilege, was brought into use. No reciprocal 
obligation was constituted by a capitulation, as it 
was meant to be a purely gratuitous concession and 
favor granted to Christians, by virtue of which they 
were to be tolerated upon the soil of Islam. 

The need for this concession on the part of the 
Mussulmans was commerce, as I have said. Had 
not the ships of the western world come to their 
eastern shores to exchange with them the products 
of the Levant, these products would have had no 
outlet, and the producing country a limited source 
of wealth; and had not the merchant of Europe 
been able to establish his domicile in the land of the 
Moslem, his ships would never have approached 
Turkish shores. Some of the capitulations with 
the Italian republics were dated as early as 1150. 
In an early capitulation with France the Sultan 
called himself " the Sultan of glorious sultans. Em- 
peror of powerful emperors, distributor of crowns 
to those seated upon thrones, the Shadow of Grod 
upon earth, the asylum of justice, the fount of 

I lO 



Paradoxical Administration 

happiness," and much, more in the same vein. In 
response to a memorial from the Queen of England, 
many years ago, that sovereign was described by 
the Sultan of Turkey as one praying for certain 
privileges for her merchants. In bestowing the 
prayed-for concession, the document from the Sul- 
tan described him thus modestly: "The King of 
kings, the Prince of emperors of every age, the 
dispenser of crowns to monarchs, who, by divine 
grace, assistance, will, benevolence," etc. 

But these dispensations, notwithstanding their 
grandiloquence, have the force and character of 
treaties, and guarantee to the stranger within the 
Sultan's gates, whether in Turkey proper or in 
Egypt, f uU and complete immunity from laws gov- 
erning native dwellers in those lands. Inviolability 
of domicile, freedom from taxation of every sort, and 
immunity from arrest for crime and misdemeanors, 
are but items in the general promise not to molest 
the alien. These treaties, it will readily be seen, 
give to the nations possessing them almost every 
privilege of extraterritoriality, and are guarded 
with jealous watchfulness. 

The capitulations occasioned so much confusion 
of jurisdiction in Egypt, where many Christian 
nationalities were represented, that Nubar Pasha 
called the attention of Ismail to the necessity for 
reform, and himself drew up a project which was 
communicated to all the governments maintaining 
representatives in Egypt. 

As a result, an international commission assem- 
bled in 1869, under the presidency of Nubar, who 

1 1 1 



Present-Day Egypt 

was minister of foreign affairs, and united in a 
report recommending the scheme. This was signed 
by the representatives of the United States, Aus- 
tria, Germany, England, France, Eussia, and Italy. 
At subsequent conventions Belgium, Spain, Hol- 
land, Grreece, Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden- 
Norway approved the plan. On June 28, 1875, 
Khedive Ismail inaugurated the court at Alexan- 
dria, although it was not until February 1, 1876, 
that the new system of jurisprudence was actually 
launched. 

The procedure is practically that of France, the 
Code Napoleon, modified to suit the circumstances 
of a country where local customs and religious ob- 
ligations must be respected. The jurisdiction is 
stated in this extract from the code itself : 

" The new tribunals shall have cognizance of all 
controversies in matters civil or commercial be- 
tween natives and foreigners, or between foreigners 
of different nationalities. Apart from questions 
touching the statut personnel [questions of wills, 
successions, heirship, and the like, which are regu- 
lated by the laws of the country of the individual], 
they shall have cognizance of all questions touch- 
ing real estate between all persons, even though 
they belong to the same [foreign] nationality." 

It is of good augury for the national progress that 
the tribunals years ago won the confidence of both 
natives and foreigners, and that the government 
bows to their authority. Europe needed no better 
proof of their efficacy than when Ismail and the 
government itself were brought before the Court 

112 



Paradoxical Administration 

of Appeal as defendants, when failing to meet 
obligations to foreign creditors. 

The practice is common for a native having an 
important suit to assign his interest to a foreign 
friend, in order to give the international courts 
jurisdiction of his cause, thus securing intelligent 
and fair consideration. A few years since, when 
some of the powers were dilatory in giving their 
adhesion to the extension of the courts, — for every 
five years there is a formal renewal, — something 
like a panic occurred among the commercial com- 
munity. 

Courts of first instance are located at Cairo, 
Alexandria, and Mansurah, and the Court of Ap- 
peal is at Alexandria. The minimum pecuniary 
limit of appeal is four hundred dollars. Three 
languages are recognized in pleadings and docu- 
ments, — French, Italian, and Arabic, — and it is 
probable that English will shortly be added to the 
list. The foreign counselors of the appellate court, 
nine in number, receive a yearly salary of nine thou- 
sand two hundred and fifty dollars each, and their 
four native colleagues half as much. For the three 
lower courts twenty-seven foreign judges are em- 
ployed, each receiving a salary of seven thousand 
dollars, their fourteen native coadjutors receiving 
half as much. Five judges — three foreign and two 
native — sit at a time. The United States, like other 
great powers, has one representative in the upper 
and two in the lower courts. While the tribunals 
were not intended to be profit-earners, their receipts 
for years have been considerably in excess of 

,15 



Present-Day Egypt 

expenses. Not since the courts were created has 
the United States been represented by abler judges 
than at present. Judges Batcheller, Tuck, and Van 
Horn reflect credit alike on their profession and the 
government that selected them. 

Inasmuch as the jurisdiction of the interna- 
tional courts has extended since the reconquest of 
the Sudan, the Egyptian government is agitating 
the matter of sending judges on circuit to Assuan, 
Suakim, and other places, if they can be prevailed 
upon to travel such distances. 

The exclusion of the English language from 
these courts has for years been an obvious anomaly, 
particularly so when it is learned that more than 
one half of the trade of the country is with Great 
Britain and her colonies, and that nearly one half 
the tonnage entering Alexandria harbor is British. 
International jealousy has made it difficult to 
change in any measure the organic scheme of the 
courts, and until now Great Britain has feared to 
press the question of admitting the English lan- 
guage. A change is inevitable. 

To take the census in Egypt it is necessary for 
the Egyptian government first to assure the repre- 
sentatives of the powers that its agents will only 
knock at the foreigner's door and request the desired 
information. Under no provocation will the in- 
quisitor enter the domicile, except upon the invita- 
tion of its occupant. Giovanni, the Italian subject, 
who opens an innocent roulette game in his back 
room for revenue, has no more to fear from the 
police of Egypt than from the police of Patagonia, 

ii6 



Paradoxical Administration 

for the simple reason that his domicile is a legal 
atom of Italy set down on Egyptian territory. His 
consul alone possesses the right to cause his arrest 
and to inflict imprisonment or fine. The son of 
Malta, should he take the life of an Egyptian, as he 
sometimes does, can be tried and punished only 
by the consular authority of Great Britain. The 
Greek skipper can sail fearlessly into Alexandria 
with a cargo of hashish, and the local police can 
say nothing to him. If he is unwise enough to at- 
tempt to land the contraband article while the 
eyes of the Egyptian government are upon him, 
the police can seize and destroy the hashish, but 
the smuggler can be reached only through the 
Greek diplomatic agent and consul-general. This 
makes it necessary for the skipper to get his mer- 
chandise ashore when the police are not looking. 

Emanating from the same source as the firman 
upon which is based the khedival authority, and 
being generally much older than Egyptian auton- 
omy, the capitulations were in no degree abrogated 
or amended when Ismail induced the Sublime 
Porte to confer upon his family the privileges of 
entailed rulership. As a consequence, there is at 
times much vexatious friction and conflict of 
authority between the Egyptian administration 
and the governments enjoying these capitulations. 
Cairo can have no system of modern drainage be- 
cause some of the European governments refuse to 
give their consent to sanitary officials to enter the 
houses of their subjects. 

The highest Egyptian officials, when discharging 

117 



Present-Day Egypt 

the duties of their positions, sometimes forget the 
existence of the capitulations. A few years ago a 
French newspaper published in Cairo was so severe 
in its criticisms of the local government that a 
khedival minister felt that the journal could be 
suppressed under a law found in the statute-book 
regulating what newspapers could and could not 
print. The press censor explained to him that his 
duty was clear, and with a posse of policemen he 
forcibly closed the office of the offending publica- 
tion. This was the only bit of good luck the editor 
had ever experienced. He laid the case before the 
representative of the French government, who, it 
being in the midst of the holiday period, happened 
to be a very young man of inferior secretarial 
rank. But he was the visible representative of his 
nation, nevertheless, and alone enjoyed the power 
to mete out punishment to the French editor. The 
minister, recognizing the blunder he had made, 
promptly set to work to repair the damage. 
Dressed in the full uniform of his high office, he 
proceeded to the French diplomatic agency and 
formally apologized to the young diplomatist ; the 
flag of France was saluted by twenty-one guns from 
the citadel, and the editor was given one hundred 
thousand dollars of the Egyptian taxpayers' money 
for the injury he had suffered through the too 
summary method by which he had been appre- 
hended for a flagrant offense against an administra- 
tion at that time a good friend of France. 

The minister was Nubar Pasha, who died in 1899, 
and from the incident I have detailed he is said to 

ii8 



Paradoxical Administration 

have formed an aversion for journalists amounting 
almost to detestation. On the occasion of his being 
made prime minister by Khedive Abbas, I Went 
to his ministry to extend the congratulations and 
good wishes usual to the event. As I was coming 
away, a group of correspondents of Continental and 
English papers called to present their congratula- 
tions, and incidentally to discover if he had any 
news to be communicated to the European world. 
Nubar shook the hand of each almost effusively 
before saying : " Gentlemen, I am glad to see you, 
and appreciate your kindness; but while I am 
premier there will be no news— none whatever." 

The Egypt of the map shows upward of four 
hundred thousand square miles, an area seven 
times as great as New England, twice that of 
France, and more than three times that of the Brit- 
ish Isles. But the practical Egypt— that which 
sustains life by vegetation, and the government by 
taxation— is not nearly as large as the States of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut together, or of Bel- 
gium alone. The ribbon-like strip of cultivable 
land bordering the Nile and forming the Delta be- 
tween Cairo and the Mediterranean comprises ten 
thousand five hundred square miles of fertile soil, 
and makes, strictly speaking, an elongated oasis 
in the North African desert. 

The Egypt thus sketched stretches from Wady- 
Halfa (second cataract), 21° 53" north latitude, 
to the Mediterranean Sea, 31° 35" north latitude. 
The breadth is limited by the Libyan and Arabian 
chains of hills on either bank of the Nile, and 

119 



Present-Day Egypt 

varies from five eighths of a mile to fourteen 
miles. The name "Egypt" is of G-reek origin. 
According to Brugsch, it is corrupted from the 
hieroglyphic Ra-ka-pta, that is, " House of the Wor- 
ship of Ptah," the Creator of the world. The name 
in vogue among the ancient Egyptians was Chemi, 
meaning "Black Country," derived from the color 
of the Nile mud. Among the Hebrews Egypt was 
called Masar, the Mizraim of the Bible ; and the 
Arabs of to-day call it Masr, which name applies 
especially to Cairo, the capital. The Turks call the 
country Gipt, which is evidently an abbreviation of 
the Greek Aigyptos. 

Fifteen years ago Egypt was insolvent. To-day 
she is easy with prosperity. The position of 
the fellaheen is constantly improving. The cor- 
vee is abolished, and the people have no more 
compulsory labor, except to keep the Nile within 
bounds at high flood, for which they are paid. 
Slavery is forbidden by khedival decree, land-taxes 
are gradually being reduced, and extortion and cor- 
ruption seem to have been stamped out. Egypt 
sells cereals enough to pay for the imported articles 
necessary to maintain her simple standard of life. 

The population of Egypt is a theme that has in- 
terested more than one generation of observers and 
writers. Under the Ptolemies we are asked to be- 
lieve that the country had 20,000,000 people ; but 
it is fairly authentic that Napoleon found only 
2,500,000 when he went there in 1798. At that 
time they had long been ground down into hopeless 
degradation and poverty to pander to the luxury 

I20 




SIR REGINALD WINGATE, SIRDAR OF EGYPTIAN A1C.\1\ AND 
GOVERNOR-GEXERAL OF THE SUDAN. 



Paradoxical Administration 

and vice of a few haughty masters. Oriental vo- 
luptuonsness had reigned in the palaces, while 
beggary and wretchedness dwelt in the mud 
hovels of the defrauded and degraded people. 

In 1846, under Mehemet Ali, the population was 
estimated at only 4,500,000. The census of 1882, 
which was a most imperfect one, showed over 
6,750,000; and that of 1897, to be considered as 
fairly accurate, as it was made under British su- 
pervision, indicated a total population between 
Wady-HaKa and the Mediterranean of 9,750,000. 
Of this total, 50.8 per cent, were males, and 49.2 per 
cent, females. After deductions for women, chil- 
dren under seven years, and desert Bedouins, it 
was calculated that 12 per cent, of the males could 
read and write, the remainder being entirely illiter- 
ate. The native Egyptians numbered 9,008,000, to 
which were to be added 40,000 originally from 
other parts of the Ottoman empire, and 574,000 
Bedouins. Of these last only 89,000 were really 
nomads, the remainder being described as semi- 
sedentary. Of foreign residents there were 112,500, 
of whom the Greeks were the most numerous, with 
38,000; then came the Italians, 24,500; British 
(including 6500 Maltese and 5000 of the army of 
occupation), 19,500 ; French (including 4000 Alge- 
rians and Tunisians), 14,000; Austrians, 7000; 
Russians, 1400 ; Germans, 1300 ; and the remainder 
divided among ten different nationalities, the 
United States being represented by less than 200 
missionaries and naturalized citizens. 

The classification according to religions showed 
123 



Present-Day Egypt 

nearly 9,000,000 Mohammedans, 730,000 Chris- 
tians, and 25,000 Israelites. The Christians in- 
cluded the Coptic race, numbering about 608,000, 
of whom only a small proportion professed the 
Roman Catholic or Protestant faith. Cairo was 
found to contain 570,000 inhabitants ; Alexandria, 
320,000 ; Tanta (the largest town in the interior of 
the Delta), 57,000 ; Zagazig and Mansurah, 35,000 
each ; Port Said, 42,000 ; Suez, 17,000 ; and Ismailia, 
nearly 7000. From the figures dealing with the 
last three towns it may be inferred that over 
50,000 persons derive their living from the Suez 
Canal. The largest town in Upper Egypt, Assiut, 
had 42,000, Keneh ranking next with 24,000. The 
total number of centers of population, comprising 
towns, villages, farms, settlements, and Bedouin en- 
campments, was found to be 18,129. 

The rapid increase in recent years in the popula- 
tion is explained in gi'eat measure by the prosper- 
ity of the country, which had drawn a large number 
of discontented people from the Mahdi's territory 
south of Wady-Halfa. A decided lessening of mor- 
tality, resulting from the introduction of rigorous 
hygienic measures, has likewise had its effect. 
There has been a marked decrease in child mor- 
tahty of late years. 

With the cultivated area estimated to be ten 
thousand five hundred square miles, Egypt's popu- 
lation has increased in density to the enormous 
figure of 928 to the square mile,^ being thus greater 

^ To make this statement credible to those who may look to other 
countries for comparisons, it must be explained that in Egypt prac- 

I 24 



Paradoxical Administration 

than any country in Europe. Belgium has a den- 
sity of 540 to the square mile, while Great Britain 
has a home population of only 315, Germany 224, 
and France 186. 

Since the year 1886 the finances of Egypt have 
improved to an extent emphasizing the nation's 
emergence from practical bankruptcy to an envi- 
able condition of credit to be found in the history 
of but few countries. So marked was the improve- 
ment that in 1890 the government was in a posi- 
tion to carry into effect a conversion of the whole 
of its external debt, thereby scaling the rate of in- 
terest in some instances nearly half. Although 
Egypt's burden of interest has thus been greatly de- 
creased, yet the country has still to find nearly nine- 
teen million dollars for the yearly interest charges. 
The present bonded debt, approximately stated, with 
the current premium quoted on European bourses 
on the several classes of obligations, is as follows : 

Guaranteed loan, 3 % (quoted 5 premium) $ 42,442,000 
Privileged debt, 3i% (quoted 2f premium) 142,854,000 
Unified debt, 4 % (quoted 7 premium) 272,037,000 

Domains loan, 4^% (quoted 5 premium) 19,418,000 

Daira Sanieh loan, 4 % (quoted 1^ premium) 32,191,000 
Total bonded debt, $508,942,000 

tically every acre of the soil not belonging to the desert is under cul- 
tivation, producing one, oftentimes two, and occasionally three crops 
a year. There are no waste lands, forests, or mountains. Were not 
almost every foot of the soil utilized, it would not be possible for 
928 persons to the square mile to be supported. And, further, it 
should be borne in mind that the official census fixing Egypt's popu- 
lation at 9,750,000 included many Bedouin tribes and other desert- 
dwellers, and was further swollen by the inclusion of many Nubians 
who had left their southern provinces and crossed the frontier into 
Egypt. 

125 



Present-Day Egypt 

This burden, applying to a community purely 
agricultural, where manual labor is worth from 
fifteen to twenty cents a day, and to a tillable area 
estimated at ten thousand five hundred square 
miles, is almost overpowering. It means a per 
capita debt of $52.20, accepting the late official cen- 
sus to be correct. The count of 1882 showed the 
indebtedness to be $72.70, but the last census aids 
England's desire to make a statistical showing of 
progress. The too liberal inclusion of desert- 
dwellers and Sudanese in the statement of popu- 
lation has little real bearing upon the condition 
of the agricultural native. But, accepting the pro 
rata debt as $52.20, that obligation of the Nilot is 
more than the present or half a dozen generations 
can discharge. Even the Turk or the Grreek 
does not owe as much. Frenchmen and English- 
men owe considerably more than the Egyptians, 
but their resources and earning capacity are incom- 
parably greater, and their creditors are their own 
countrypeople. The public debt of the United 
States, recently emerged from a costly foreign war, 
shows a per capita obligation of only about $14. 

Egyptian securities ruled very low in the year of 
the Arabi rebellion, and the year following, in 
which occurred the fiasco in the Sudan. "Uni- 
fieds " for a time were quoted at 46^, and an aver- 
age price for months for nearly every class of 
Egyptian securities was 50, meaning that prudent 
investors would give only half its face value for the 
bonded debt of Egypt. It has never been possible 
to determine the nationality of holders of Egyptian 

126 



Paradoxical Administration 

securities. Interest coupons are presented in Lon- 
don, Paris, Berlin, and Cairo, and naturally at the 
place where exchange is highest, or where income 
taxes can best be escaped. It is believed, however, 
that Britishers own half of them. 

Discouragements of every sort beset the work of 
regeneration entered upon by Tewfik Pasha and 
the Englishmen electing to labor with him, follow- 
ing the events of 1882. For years it was a neck- 
and-neck race with bankruptcy. Indemnification 
of Alexandrians whose property was destroyed by 
reason of the bombardment and sacking, the mili- 
tary disaster resulting in the loss of the Sudan, 
and other inevitable expenditures, swelled the na- 
tional debt by nearly forty million dollars in excess 
of what it was when the British went to the coun- 
try. Recuperation was brought about by checking 
waste and dishonesty, developing the soil, and add- 
ing to the cultivable territory by scientific irriga- 
tion. The reduction by half of railroad, postal, and 
telegraph rates proved the wisdom of legislating for 
the earning classes, by doubling the service and 
augmenting the income. The salt monopoly, as 
well, was rendered more profitable by the sweeping 
reduction in the price of that commodity. 

Changes of any sort are made with difficulty, 
because of the unique conditions detailed in this 
chapter. The public cash-box guarded by repre- 
sentatives of six European governments, and treaty 
privileges possessed by fourteen powers, some of 
which are not in sympathy with the present control 
of affairs by England, make progress difficult. The 

127 



Present-Day Egypt 

restoration of Egypt to admitted prosperity, conse- 
quently, at a period when shrinkage in prices of 
cotton, sugar, and grain has been very great, must 
be regarded as a conspicuous triumph. Khedive 
Abbas and his co-workers have much to accomplish 
still ; but system and economy being now estab- 
lished on a secure basis, the attainment to perma- 
nent success cannot be difficult. 

A striking feature of the governmental manage- 
ment of railways in Egypt is that only forty-three 
per cent, of the gross receipts are applied to operat- 
ing expenses. Native labor, moderate speed of or- 
dinary trains, and a rainless and frostless climate 
make this possible. The state lines carry now up- 
ward of twelve million passengers in a year, and 
the receipts from all sources are not far from ten 
million dollars annually. By reason of the impor- 
tant reduction of fares, previously spoken of, the 
number of passengers has been doubled in a few 
years. All-rail travel from the Mediterranean to 
the first cataract of the Nile has been possible for 
six years. From Luxor southward the railway is 
narrow-gage, harmonizing with the lines built in 
the Sudan for military purposes. 

The rapid augmentation of winter travel to the 
Nile is helping the lot of the Egyptian materially. 
In an average year the pleasure- and health-seekers, 
approaching eight thousand in number, distribute 
fully five million dollars in the country, and it is 
estimated that in a good season half this sum is 
left behind by Americans. 

As in all countries where the gulf between the 
128 



Paradoxical Administration 

masses and the upper class is wide, the desire for 
petty office-holding is one of the crying evils of 
Egypt. It is estimated that two per cent, of the 
able-bodied men serve the government in some 
capacity, and to secure public employ is the dream 
of nearly every youth not satisfied to become a 
farmer. Nepotism formerly had full play, and it is 
now difficult to make the people understand that 
merit and capacity should place one in the public 
service, rather than favor. Ministries and public 
offices appear to be overcrowded with subordinates 
of every conceivable nationality. The responsible 
heads of departments are generally English, but the 
clerks are French, Italian, Syrian, and Egyptian, 
with a liberal sprinkling of British subjects. Func- 
tionaries of the Egyptian government are surpris- 
ingly overpaid or underpaid, their salaries being 
strangely out of proportion. Cabinet officers are 
paid fifteen thousand dollars a year, and under- 
secretaries seventy-five hundred dollars— twice 
what Washington officials of the same grade receive. 
But many of the hardest-worked accountants and 
translators are rewarded with salaries barely suffi- 
cient to provide the necessaries of life. The de- 
partments and bureaus of the government are open 
only in the forenoon, and the official day's work 
never exceeds five hours, and nearly every week 
has a religious or other anniversary that is treated 
as a holiday. In that halcyon period known as 
*' the good old days " there were more civil servants 
in Egypt than in Great Britain, with five times the 
population. Many abuses have been abolished, but 

131 



Present-Day Egypt 

thorougli reform has yet to be accomplished in the 
public service of Egypt to place it on a footing by 
which it might be compared with public employ- 
ment in either the United States or G-reat Britain. 

The " international " aspect of Egypt is an expen- 
sive luxury, and contributes in no small measure 
to the demands upon the public treasury. The 
International Debt Commission, for illustration, 
brings to Cairo delegates of the powers which are 
the country's creditors. Each is paid a salary of 
ten thousand dollars by the khedival government 
for looking after the interests of his countrymen 
fortunate enough to own Egyptian bonds, which can 
be sold anywhere at a substantial premium, and 
which, very likely, were purchased at a price far 
below their par value. Having no voice whatever 
in fixing the rate of interest, or the proportion 
going to the different countries, it might occur to 
the strict reformer that a competent, trustworthy 
accountant could perform the service of these six 
officials, with a great saving to the toiling masses 
of Egypt. But the countries interested would no 
more be able to agree on the nationality of such an 
accountant than were the same powers in deciding 
the question of nationality of the governor of Crete 
after the Greco-Turkish war. 

The railway system of less than fifteen hundred 
miles is managed by three princely paid men, act- 
ing for England, France, and Egypt. In Europe 
or America a single competent man would do it all, 
for a fraction of the pay, and most likely find time 
hanging heavily on his hands and want more to do. 

132 



Paradoxical Administration 

Similarly, the spirit of internationalism dominates 
the Daira Sanieh, the State Domains, and other 
divisions of the government, aggregating a mighty- 
draft on the exchequer. But the customs and post- 
office departments, each with a single head, are 
models of perfection. The postal service, managed 
by Saba Pasha, seems to be faultless. 

The purchasing power, held to be indicative of a 
nation's pecuniary condition, has advanced with 
other statistics dealing with the country's welfare. 
In 1882 the imports were valued at $32,127,650 ; in 
1890, $40,409,635, and in 1896, $45,750,000. Exports 
for the same years— cotton, cotton-seed, sugar, and 
grain— were valued at $54,977,850, $59,373,490, and 
$66,000,000, respectively. More than half of the 
foreign commerce is with Great Britain. The cot- 
ton crop, wholly exported, produces in the neigh- 
borhood of $50,000,000 a year. Of this the United 
States buys about $4,000,000 worth. The tonnage 
arrivals at the port of Alexandria have nearly 
doubled since 1882, and in a normal year are 
slightly in excess of two million tons. The port 
receipts are as high as $7,000,000 in a year. 

To carry on the government requires about $53,- 
000,000 a year. It used to be more in the free-and- 
easy times when budget-making was the merest 
guesswork, and deficiencies could be explained in 
the convenient phrase, " insufficiency of receipts." 
The heaviest outlay is for interest on the bonded 
indebtedness, $18,850,000 ; while the annual tribute 
to the Sultan (signed away by that monarch to 
European bankers) consumes $3,365,200 more. 

133 



Present-Day Egypt 

The khedive, khedival family, and palace expenses, 
coming nnder the head of " civil list," call for 
$1,159,000. In ordinary times the army and mili- 
tary police cost $2,390,000, and civil and military 
pensions $2,150,000 more. 

Nearly half of the sum required to carry on the 
Egyptian government is produced by direct taxa- 
tion on land. The other half is made up by in- 
direct taxation, from the following sources: cus- 
toms receipts (eight per cent, on imports and one 
per cent, on exports), tax on date-trees, tobacco tax, 
municipal octroi on food and merchandise, stamp 
duties, receipts from railways, post-offices, tele- 
graphs, lighthouses, and courts of justice. The 
sale of salt and natron gives a yearly revenue of 
nearly $8,000,000. 

A reform of the greatest importance, becoming 
effective in the last few years, is the adjustment 
of inequalities in the land-tax. By the old scheme 
of estimating values many anomalies were coun- 
tenanced, as well as many injustices. It was not 
unusual to find land renting at thirty or thirty-five 
dollars an acre paying the government only two 
and a half dollars in taxes. In Ismail's time there 
was no rule for the collection of taxes, and the 
minions of the government went prepared to take 
from the farmer every penny his crops had pro- 
duced, and then flog him into borrowing at heavy 
usury any additional sum the rapacious collector 
chose to demand. Not until Khedive Tewfik's 
reign was a receipt of any kind given the peasant 
to show that he had paid his taxes and that no 

134 



Paradoxical Administration 

more was due for the current year. Simple as 
was the giving of such a receipt, nothing more 
potent for alleviating the position of the fellaheen 
was ever inaugurated. It was a reform benefiting 
every tiller of the soil, and was in operation before 
" the coming of the English." 

The scheme of taxation in force for some years 
has been arbitrary and inequitable. A definite tax 
has been prescribed for certain districts, which only 
a portion of the land was capable of paying. The 
reform in hand has been to create a schedule based 
upon rental values, that each acre may be assessed 
commensurately with its producing capacity. The 
total taxation of the country is not to be increased 
under the new system, the movement being in- 
tended to relieve the small proprietor, who will pay 
less per acre, while the pasha landlord, once pow- 
erful enough to have his thousands of acres assessed 
at whatever he chose to pay, will be called upon to 
contribute to the public expenses by a proportion- 
ately higher estimate of land values. These glar- 
ing inequalities were brought into prominence by 
the decreasing prices of crops, and relief was im- 
peratively necessary. 

The land-tax has ever been the millstone about 
the neck of the Egyptian, sapping his energies and 
stunting his intellectual growth. The ancestors of 
the peasant now toiling from long before sunrise 
until after sunset, nearly every day in the year, 
have been tillers of the soil and drawers of water 
since the world began ; and their incessant toil has 
produced but little— for them. It will surprise 



Present-Day Egypt 



American farmers and Britisli agriculturists to 
know that some of their brethren of the Nile 
pay a land-tax of eight dollars per acre annually, 
and that the average tax of the country approxi- 
mates four dollars to the acre. The heaviest tax is 
on the choice lands of the Delta, possessing such 
exceptional richness that five hundredweight or 
more of cotton per acre is produced each year with 
comparative certainty. 

To-day's prosperity of the fellah of Egypt, per- 
mitting him to have a few dollars after the adjust- 
ment of accounts following the sale of his crops, 
occasionally to augment his vegetable diet by 
a dish of meat, and to seek recreation at his be- 
loved religious fairs, is of recent origin and slow 
growth: it began with the introduction of tax re- 
ceipts, and has been nurtured at intervals by tri- 
fling reductions in taxation, as the area has been 
added to by irrigation at a rate in excess of the 
government's pecuniary needs. Being humanely 
treated, the present-day Egyptian realizes that he 
is a human being ; and it is the opinion of those 
capable of judging that more has been done in the 
last fifteen years for his well-being than in all the 
rest of the century. The humane work was inau- 
gurated under Tewfik Pasha, and the administra- 
tion headed by Khedive Abbas is carrying it for- 
ward with intelligent perseverance. 

The country's obligations to European creditors 
are sufficiently menacing and burdensome to com- 
pel the small farmer to keep out of the clutches of 
the Greek or Syrian money-lender at his gates, if 

138 



Paradoxical Administration 

he can. Nevertheless, the strictly home indebted- 
ness secured by farm mortgages is greater than it 
should be. Some critics insist that this is certain 
proof that the boasted prosperity of the country is 
fictitious, and exhibit statistics to support their 
argument. Critics friendly to English rule array 
figures calculated to show that the aggregate do- 
mestic mortgage indebtedness is very small, less 
than forty million dollars, and that it is the pro- 
prietors of fifty acres and upward who have 
pledged their farms ; and, further, that they have 
done this only to be able to buy more land, being 
confident of an appreciation of values. It is a fact, 
I believe, that the proportion of petty holders bor- 
rowing by mortgage is small, and they are the 
people whose welfare first deserves consideration. 
The recent expansion of the cultivable area being 
chiefly in Upper Egypt and portions of the Nile 
valley where the fertility cannot be compared to 
that of Lower Egypt, there has been a correspond- 
ing decrease in the average value of the acre. 
When I investigated the subject a few years ago, I 
arrived at the conclusion that $115 was a fair esti- 
mate of the value of productive Egypt, acre for 
acre. Now, when the character of the newly ac- 
quired extensions is considered, it is my judgment 
that the average value of the 6,720,000 acres has 
fallen to $105. Readers of mathematical mind, dis- 
covering that the foreign bonded indebtedness on 
every acre of productive soil averages $75.74, and 
adding $8 for home mortgage burden (to my mind 
estimated at too low a sum), find that but little 



Present-Day Egypt 

equity remains to the Egyptian, who for more than 
six thousand years has been the most industrious 
and light-hearted of husbandmen. Plainly stated, 
it means a margin of only $21.26 an acre. And his 
energy must not flag for generations to come, lest 
his fellow-creature in enlightened Europe be in 
arrears over his interest on " Egyptians." Blessed 
be Allah! 

In Earl Cromer the British government has one 
of its ablest administrators, and as forceful and 
far-seeing a man as England's group of aggressive 
empire-builders can show. A Baring, of the bank- 
ing family, he graduated from the British army 
into the foreign civil service, where his adminis- 
trative genius was manifested years ago by his 
good work in India, and the fact accepted by all 
political parties in Parliament that he was a man 
to be trusted. As England's representative in the 
dual financial control of Egypt, in the years im- 
mediately precedent to the "occupation" of the 
country by Great Britain, his tact and honesty 
contributed greatly to preserving the apparent 
entente cordiale with France, really chafing under 
the gradual impairment of prestige in the land of 
the Nile. The dual control ended. Major Baring 
was elevated to the position of diplomatic agent 
and consul-general in Egypt, and given almost 
plenary power, not only in carrying into effect in- 
structions and suggestions from London, but in 
shaping Britain's policy in the Nile valley and Delta. 
The effective manner in which he has handled 
Egyptian affairs has made him his nation's credi- 

140 




THE EARL OF CROMER, G.C.B., BRITISH DIPLOMATIC AGENT 
AND CONSUL-GENERAL. 



Paradoxical Administration 

tor; and the honors bestowed upon him— knight- 
hood first, then a barony and peerage, and finally 
the earlship— but inadequately discharge the debt 
that his government owes him. So determined is 
he to carry his administration of Egypt to a tri- 
umphant termination that an offer of the viceroy- 
ship of India, or a cabinet position in London, has 
awakened no desire to leave Cairo. 

Lord Cromer is de facto ruler of Egypt, the visi- 
ble but unclassified representative of the majesty 
of Great Britain, with almost unlimited power and 
authority. JDe jure he is Britain's diplomatic rep- 
resentative,— nothing more, — and his exequatur is- 
sues from the Sublime Porte in exactly the same 
form as that of the representative of any other 
government at the court of the khedive. This is 
but one of the paradoxes incident to present-day 
Egypt. Possessing little aptitude for accepted 
formulae of diplomacy, perhaps. Lord Cromer 
makes a thoroughly reliable doyen of the diplo- 
matic corps, which he is because his appoint- 
ment antedates that of any of his colleagues. He 
cares nothing for display, detests shams, is a keen 
judge of men, and selects his assistants with such 
discernment that his judgment seldom errs. De- 
void of a sense of humor, and unimaginative, Lord 
Cromer analyzes with great care a question in 
which the interests of others are concerned ; and, an 
opinion formed, his conclusion is bound to prevail. 
Earl Cromer is a man of marvelous industry. He 
reads Homer, learns a language, — even Turkish, — 
and plays tennis or whist with the same energy, 

H3 



Present-Day Egypt 

and with, the same object— to win. Lord Cromer 
has effected the industrial conquest of Egypt by 
mathematics, not always attained by following the 
line of least resistance; and for a dozen years 
progress has been accomplished precisely as his 
figures told him it might be. In conversation one 
feels that he is more preoccupied with what he in- 
tends to say than with his manner of expressing it. 
This is but a sketchy description of an interesting 
man and his character ; but it is sufficient, possibly, 
to explain the success of England's rule in Egypt. 
The Countess of Cromer— his Lordship's second 
wife— has a part in public life to play almost as 
exacting as that of her administrative husband, and 
discharges her responsibilities with a grace and 
tact that go far toward making social life in Cairo 
delightful. 



144 



CHAPTER V 

THE EXPANSION OF PEODUCTIVE EGYPT BY lERIGATION 

THE most interesting page in the modern his- 
tory of Egypt is that which records the de- 
velopment of scientific irrigation. 

The African continent was coincidently the 
theater, during recent years, of two gigantic en- 
terprises, both of British origin, backed by British 
credit, and aimed professedly at improvement in 
the condition of humanity. In one of them the 
resources of military genius and preponderating 
strength brought two interior South African re- 
publics under monarchical rule ; while the other 
project, worked out at the first cataract of the 
Nile by a handful of resourceful engineers, has 
permanently extended the area of cultivable Egypt 
by nearly twenty per cent., and great belts of the 
desert contiguous to the Nile are now forced to 
surrender their aridity to the production of stan- 
dard crops that feed mankind. 

The military achievement cost an appalling sum 
in life and treasure ; the object-lesson in practical 
expansion a comparatively insignificant amount, 
to be recouped in a few years by nature's bounty. 
To my mind, the triumph of the studious engineer 

145 



Present-Day Egypt 

was far greater than that of field-marshal and gen- 
eral ; but the meed of official praise was given over- 
whelmingly to the men who wrought with the 
sword. 

The triumph of practical science, such as irriga- 
tion, bearing no relation to the sword or diplo- 
macy, which turns a single acre of desert sand 
into a productive field, must be a thousandfold 
more valuable to the world than the victory of 
arms that merely changes a frontier or deprives a 
defeated nation of a single foot of soil: it is the 
victory of peace ; it is creation. 

In the western world we may have an insuffi- 
cient understanding of the physical conditions 
which explain the importance of the great dam at 
Assuau, dedicated by the khedive on the 10th of 
December, 1902. 

Egypt being practically rainless, the Nile is per- 
force the sole medium of fertility; and this river, 
created by torrential rains in Abyssinia and the 
overflow of equatorial lakes, and without affluent 
in Egyptian territory, has a volume which varies 
with the seasons. For four months the flood rush- 
ing seaward is known as high Nile ; it inundates 
hundreds of miles of valley and Delta, enriching 
the soil in preparation for seeding. Then come 
eight months of low Nile, which, were it not for 
man's forethought, would result in parched fields, 
and the productive capacity of the country would 
be reduced to an extent meaning famine. The 
confinement of the surplus water of the flood sea- 
son, and its systematic liberation during the burn- 

146 



Expansion by Irrigation 

ing summer months, secure prosperity ; for, wher- 
ever the fertilizing water can be directed, the 
desert sands blossom into vegetation rich enough 
to tax credulity. 

As a vocation agriculture in Egypt is fraught 
with conditions that may well appear strange to 
the farmer in America or Europe, where water 
falls providentially from the clouds. Along the 
Nile, water must be lifted from the river or canals, 
every drop of it, and ingeniously conducted to every 
foot of soil under crops; none comes by gravita- 
tion. The elevation varies from fifteen to twenty- 
five feet, and is accomplished mainly by manual 
labor operating shadoofs— really the primitive pole- 
and-bucket system. Those who farm in a biggish 
way, comprehending industrial economies, employ 
animal-driven chains of buckets, and landed pro- 
prietors of financial resources employ steam-pumps 
to irrigate their fields. Ten or fifteen years ago, 
practically all irrigation was e:ffected by manual 
or animal labor. 

As soon as his crops are sown, the Egyptian 
becomes an irrigationist for a period of nearly a 
hundred days. If unprogressive enough to retain 
his shadoofs, he has to figure on a workman for 
each acre under summer crops, and to saturate 
this acre once the fellah must raise nearly four 
hundred tons of water; and this same acre must 
be fertilized in that way four or five times in a 
season. The labor required for irrigating is com- 
puted at ten dollars per acre. The sakieh-farmer, 
using chains of buckets, accomplishes it for less ; 

H7 



Present-Day Egypt 

the capitalist owning modern pumps for half as 
much. It is a conservative statement that one 
haK the male population of Egypt, in summer, is 
employed in water-hoisting. But the shadoof is 
doomed, as it should be : it is being crowded out 
by labor-saving inventions. 

The Egyptian husbandman has some advantages 
over his brethren in other climes, however. He 
never heard of frost, and he encounters neither 
trust nor labor organization. He may not know 
what the price of grain, cane, or cotton will be at 
a future date, but he can compute to a nicety 
what his crop will measure and what it will cost 
him. He gathers two crops a year from the same 
piece of land, and sometimes three. If his sons 
and relatives are insufficient for his requirements, 
for from two to three piasters (ten to fifteen cents) 
a day he can employ a steady, reliable laborer, 
willing to wait for his wages until the crop is 
marketed. 

The desert is illimitable, and the water-supply can 
be made almost inexhaustible. Consequently the 
irrigation engineer in Egypt has long had before 
him definite factors, which, if practically conjoined, 
meant certain and golden results. The old bar- 
rage near Cairo, at the apex of the Delta, made in 
Mehemet Ali's time by French engineers, and re- 
constructed later under the British regime, saved 
the country from bankruptcy by developing a cot- 
ton crop worth fifty million dollars a year; and 
minor upstream storage basins brought into being 
crops of sugar and cereals greatly in excess of the 

148 



Expansion by Irrigation 

Egyptians' wants. It is estimated that the Cairo 
barrage has drawn ten million dollars annually 
into the national treasury in land taxes for close 
upon a generation. 

The British administration of the land of the 
Pharaohs being a business proposition, it had no 
hesitation in committing to its engineers the task 
of providing facilities for storing Nile water on a 
stupendous scale, compelling the great river to pay 
tribute to agriculture rather than wasting its virtue 
in the Mediterranean Sea, knowing that the preg- 
nant soil could in a few years be made to defray 
the cost of any reservoir that human agency could 
construct. 

The greater part of Egypt's desert will ever re- 
main desert, whatever sum may be expended in 
reservoirs as aids to irrigation. All that man can 
do is to widen the narrow strips of green along the 
banks of the Nile, rendering them and the low- 
lying Delta more productive than they at present 
are, with their intermittent supply of nourishing 
liquid, varying with the season. 

The engineers had considerations of every sort 
to weigh — professional, natural, fiscal — before de- 
termining the site for the great reservoir. They 
decided finally, after consulting disinterested ex- 
perts from several European countries, that As- 
suan, with its bed of syenite granite — the identical 
lode that furnished the obelisks that now stand in 
Central Park in New York, and on London's 
Thames Embankment, and in the Place de la Con- 
corde in Paris— beneath the river, and with the fa- 



Present-Day Egypt 

vorable conformation of the surrounding country, 
offered advantages equaled by no other location. 
Nature had there been lavish in providing hills of 
solid rock on either bank that will stand the ravishes 
of the elements as long as the world lasts. A situa- 
tion thirty miles south of Assuan, at Kalabsheh, 
was discussed ; but there the massive dam would 
have to rest on a foundation of crumbly sandstone. 
The Silsila Gate site, fifty miles north of Assuan, 
was rejected for the same reason, and incidentally 
because the recently excavated ruins of the Kom- 
Ombos temple would be destroyed. 

The rediscovery by an American scholar, Mr. 
Cope Whitehouse, of the depression sixty-odd miles 
southwest of Cairo, known in Bible times as Lake 
Moeris, was likewise not availed of. Mr. White- 
house showed the khedive's engineers how again to 
store the flood of the Nile in the same desert de- 
pression—or that part of it known as the Wady- 
Eayan— by utilizing Joseph's Canal, which leaves 
the Nile at Assiut and conveys the water of life to 
the Fayum. But the Englishmen guiding the 
Egyptian chariot of state having no wish to divide 
honors with Joseph, however worthy as an irriga- 
tionist, nor with Mr. Whitehouse, the latter was 
formally thanked for his erudite suggestion, dec- 
orated by the khedive as a Grand Commander of 
the Medjidieh— and the Englishmen proceeded 
with their studies preliminary to the Assuan dam. 

It has been my opinion that Mr. Whitehouse's 
project, used in conjunction with the Bahr Yous- 
sef canal, had much to commend it ; but the law 



Expansion by Irrigation 

of gravity would confine its sphere of usefulness 
to the Fayum province and to the Delta — the 
latter being already, in all probability, the richest 
soil on the face of the earth. When the augmented 
Egypt shall have " caught up " with the new con- 
ditions which must result from the Assuan reser- 
voir, it may be expected that the Department of 
Public Works will cast about for storage places 
between Assiut and Cairo. The possibility of util- 
izing the Whitehouse plan may then be considered, 
for perennial irrigation on a large scale is part of 
the obvious program of those who control Egyptian 
affairs. 

Probably the cardinal recommendation of the 
Assuan site was that its location on the natural 
and political frontier, where Egypt joins Nubia, 
admitted of the fertilizing of the entire length of 
the Nile valley in Egypt, approximately seven 
hundred miles. This was a wise conclusion, inas- 
much as the work is eventually to be paid for out 
of the national treasury. 

It may be prophesied that the Assuan reservoir 
is but one of a series which will in time be con- 
structed southward to Berber, Khartum, and 
possibly the Victoria Nyanza itself ; the reestab- 
lishment of Egyptian authority at Khartum makes 
this possible. If so, the Sudan provinces may 
become important grain-producers. But, before 
this is a fact, the population of the Sudan must 
be recruited and schooled in the handling of labor- 
saving implements. 

As a daring readjustment of nature's surface, 

153 



Present-Day Egypt 

the building of the Assuan dam, imprisoning in 
Nubia a body of water perhaps a hundred and 
forty miles long, crossing the tropic of Cancer, 
and reaching southward nearly to Korosko, was a 
project outranking anything hitherto attempted 
by engineering skill ; and, as a building scheme, it 
would have been worthy of a Rameses. A greater 
sum was spent or wasted over the Suez Canal, but 
as an engineering exploit that enterprise, in com- 
parison, was simplicity itself. 

Pyramids and temples have borne testimony, 
through unnumbered centuries, to the power of 
execution which formerly dwelt in the valley of 
the Nile. But the rearing of the Assuan dam, 
since it is to minister to the world's necessities 
rather than to man's vanity, is a greater work 
than the erection of all the pyramids at Gizeh. 
To create in North Africa a lake having possibly 
three times the superficial area of Lake Geneva 
in Switzerland, and to provide the means of con- 
trolling it with scientific precision, so that the 
harnessed flood might be turned into distant chan- 
nels at will, was a comprehensive, even audacious, 
undertaking. But the representatives of the De- 
partment of Public Works claim that their plans 
have been carried out to the letter. They com- 
puted the water that would be held in bondage, 
and estimated the resistance which would have to 
be provided at every point of the masonry. In 
Cairo the mathematicians of the Ministry of 
Finance claim to know the sum that should come 




LOG-SWIMMING DOAVN THE ASSUAN CATARACT. 



Expansion by Irrigation 

into the public treasury from taxation through the 
country's augmented productiveness. 

Although the natural adaptability of the loca- 
tion had for fifty years been discussed by other 
engineers, the Assuan dam was practically the 
suggestion of Mr. William Willcocks, the modest 
but hard-working Director-General of Egyptian 
Reservoirs, who has been rewarded with Brit- 
ish knighthood. It is appropriate here to quote 
from a book written more than forty years ago by 
Sir Samuel Baker, the explorer. After descending 
the great river from source to mouth, he wrote: 
" The Nile might be so controlled that the enormous 
volume of water that now rushes uselessly into the 
Mediterranean might be led through the deserts 
to transform them into cotton-fields that would 
render England independent of America. A gigan- 
tic dam at Assuan could be constructed with cer- 
tain results." It is easy enough to construct dams 
and barrages on paper ; but wherever water is con- 
cerned the real difficulty and interest is in the 
practical execution of the works, for water never 
sleeps, but day and night is stealthily seeking to 
defeat the engineer's plans. 

When the Cairo administration found itself pre- 
pared to begin operations, Sir Benjamin Baker, 
conspicuous in British engineering undertakings, 
especially the Forth Bridge and the Manchester 
Canal, was invited to become chief engineer of the 
Assuan project, to work in concert with Sir Wil- 
liam Grarstin, Under-Secretary of Public Works. 

^S7 



Present-Day Egypt 

A group of London capitalists, headed by Sir 
Ernest Cassel, financed the scheme from inception 
to completion, the Egyptian government not being 
called upon to pay anything until the dam was 
completed and formally accepted. 

Sir John Aird, M. P., and his subordinate con- 
tractors presented at the outset what looked like 
a moderate program — namely, to proceed imme- 
diately with the work and receive later in the 
neighborhood of $800,000 a year for thirty years, 
presumably aggregating about $25,000,000. The 
credit was a long one, certainly, and the ability of 
Egypt to make such a favorable contract, by 
which she apparently took little risk, and is to pay 
away each year but a part of the sum the reservoir 
brings to her exchequer, proves the enviable posi- 
tion of her credit. The transaction may further 
be taken as an earnest of Great Britain's intention 
to retain indefinitely her control of the country of 
the Nile. 

In an official report by Earl Cromer, the British 
Diplomatic Agent in Egypt, it has been stated 
that the actual cost of the Assuan dam is about 
$12,500,000, and that it will increase the earning 
power of Egypt fully $13,000,000 annually— in 
other words, that it will pay for itself to the coun- 
try every twelvemonth. The reservoir will permit 
the additional irrigation of 1,600,000 acres. Lord 
Cromer writes, and it is estimated that it will 
bring additional revenue to the Egyptian govern- 
ment, in the shape of taxes, of $1,900,000 per year, 
and indirectly even more, when import and export 

158 



Expansion by Irrigation 

customs and railway earnings are taken into 
account. The cost of the dam was about ten per 
cent, in excess of the estimate. When the builders 
went below the river's bed, seeking a solid founda- 
tion for the enormous structure, they encountered 
unsubstantial rock where imperishable granite had 
been looked for. This made it necessary to dig 
forty feet deeper in places than had been intended. 

The contract was signed in February, 1898, and 
the date fixed for the completion of the work was 
July 1, 1903 ; but the low summer levels, especially 
in 1900, were so favorable that unexpected progress 
was made by Sir John Aird & Co., and the dam 
was completed before the advent of the flood in 
December, 1902, practically a year before the 
specified contract time. 

The dam is straight from end to end, and a mile 
and a quarter long; its thickness at its deepest 
part is 82 feet, tapering to 23 feet at the top, 
which is finished as a roadway. The height from 
the lowest part of the foundation to the coping is 
131 feet. The maximum " head " of the impounded 
water will be 65 feet, and when the dam is full 
the volume of water is calculated at 234,300,000,000 
gallons — practically, a billion tons. In years of 
ordinary Nile conditions the storage will be com- 
pleted in March, and the vitalizing liquid will be 
liberated during May, June, and July; then, for 
several months, when the valley of the Nile will 
continue athirst, the sluices will be kept open to 
their widest capacity, that the remaining flow of 
the river may not be checked. 

.59 



Present-Day Egypt 

The Assuan structure differs in several respects 
from any great dam hitherto built. In the first 
place, no dam for impounding water has ever been 
made on any river approaching the size of the 
Nile ; and, in the second place, it is both dam and 
waterway, a combination exceedingly difficult to 
effect. The released water, coming always from 
the bottom of the reservoir, will carry the enrich- 
ing "red" precipitation that has been swept by 
the current all the way from Abyssinia. To con- 
fine Father Nile in flood-time would be hopeless, 
for the flow may amount to 15,000 tons of water a 
second. The dam has 180 sluice-openings, mostly 
23 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches wide. Where the 
gates are subject to abnormal pressure they are 
hung on rollers, admitting of easy and certain rais- 
ing. The masonry is of local granite, set in Port- 
land cement mortar, the interior being of rubble, 
set by hand, with about forty per cent, of the bulk 
in cement mortar, mixed four parts of sand to one 
of cement. The surface-work of the huge struc- 
ture is of coursed, rock-faced ashler, but sluice- 
linings and locks are finely dressed. 

During construction there was great need at 
times for completing a section before the coming 
of high Nile, and it is recorded that at one point 
as much as 3600 tons of masonry were put in 
place in a single day. Every facility for expedi- 
tious work was utilized, including lines of railway 
from quarries to the spot where blocks of stone 
were deposited by steam-cranes. Ten thousand 
natives were employed in certain months, and a 

i6o 



Expansion by Irrigation 

thousand or more European stone-cutters, mostly 
Italians and Greeks, were kept constantly at work. 
A single order for 3,000,000 barrels of Portland 
cement was placed in England. 

While formerly navigation at Assuan was fea- 
sible only at high Nile, and then with great diffi- 
culty, it is now perennial ; for on the west flank of 
the dam a navigation "ladder" of four locks, each 
260 feet long by 32 feet wide, is in successful 
operation. Hitherto transhipment of passen- 
gers and goods at the first cataract has been ob- 
ligatory throughout a greater part of the year. 
The steamer or dahabiyeh of the tourist may now 
proceed, uninterrupted by rock barriers, from Cairo 
to Wady-Halfa. 

The American sun-seeker or English milord, 
making the voyage to Wady-Halfa by his own 
dahabiyeh, will no longer have his craft hauled up 
the cataract by a hundred shrieking Arabs and 
Berberins, for most likely it will be taken up the 
rapids and through the locks by electricity gener- 
ated by the rushing Nile itself. Indeed, a practi- 
cal Britisher is in the field for utilizing the cata- 
ract's force for electrically lighting Assuan and 
propelling irrigating machinery for a hundred miles 
or more downstream. 

Subordinate to the great dam, a smaller one, in 
character like the barrage at the apex of the Delta, 
has been built at Assiut, 250 miles south of Cairo. 
Its function is to give sufficient " head " to the 
river to force the water into the irrigation canals 
that vein hundreds of thousands of acres north of 

163 



Present-Day Egypt 

Assiut. This new aid to agriculture is con- 
structed of stone, whereas the Delta barrage is of 
brick. Its total length is just over a half-mile — 
2750 feet; and it has a set of navigation locks, 
and 111 arched sluices for regulating the flood 
discharge. Experts estimate that this Assiut 
barrage, in conjunction with the Ibramieh canal, 
whose intake is immediately above, will bring 
300,000 acres under cultivation, and immeasurably 
enhance the fertility of the Fayum province. 

The Nile, the only river of Egypt, has a length 
of 4062 miles, and is thus exceeded only by the 
Mississippi, having a length of 4112 miles. At 
Cairo the river is eleven hundred yards in breadth. 
After the confluence of the Blue and White Niles 
at Khartum, it receives but one tributary, the 
Atbara. In Egypt proper the great river has no 
afSuent and is contributed to in no way. The 
most important of the outlets of the Nile is the 
Bahr Youssef, that leaves the river near Girgeh, 
and for 220 miles follows along the foot of the 
Libyan chain of hills, finally entering the Fayum 
and fertilizing this fruitful oasis, its own creation, 
in numerous ramifications. In the Delta the most 
important canal is the Mahmudiyeh, built by Me- 
hemet Ali in 1823, connecting the Rosetta arm with 
the harbor of Alexandria. 

At Assuan the Nile is 330 feet above the level 
of the Mediterranean. From Assuan to Cairo the 
fall is a trifle under five inches in the mile, and 
from Cairo to the sea the fall averages nearly an 
inch to the mile. 

164 



Expansion by Irrigation 

To equalize the distribution of the Nile water 
among cultivators, the whole country devoted to 
agriculture is divided by low earthwork dams into 
large fields, to which the water is conducted by 
canals. It used to be computed that more than 
half of the Nile, with its precious sediment from 
Abyssinia, poured into the Mediterranean ; in other 
words, water and soil enough to create many Egypts 
were permitted to run to waste. 

The Egypt of the map contains more than 400,- 
000 square miles, an expanse seven times as great 
as the New England States collectively; but the 
practical Egypt — that which produces crops and 
sustains life — is considerably less than the States 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut united. This 
ribbon-like strip of alluvial land bordering the 
Nile, a very few miles wide on either bank, with 
the Delta included, measures not more than 10,500 
square miles. 

To state with exactitude what will be the ex- 
pansion realized by the two Nile dams finished 
in 1902 is impossible. Not only will the alluvial 
area be enormously enlarged, but, augmented irri- 
gation provided, the area now under tillage will 
be rendered more productive. The benefits con- 
templated are not to be realized at once. But I 
deem it within the bounds of reason to record the 
belief that the effect, by 1908, of the recent adjuncts 
to irrigation in the Nile valley, will be equal to the 
addition to the cultivable area which I call " prac- 
tical Egypt " of fully twenty per cent., extravagant 
as that estimate may be regarded ; in other words, 

165 



Present-Day Egypt 

that an area equal to that of Rhode Island will be 
added to the figurative area of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, employed in this article for the pur- 
pose of ready comprehension. 

This will be expansion in its truest sense, and 
its accomplishment will be a verification of the 
ancient proverb that " Egypt is the Nile, and the 
Nile is Egypt." As an object-lesson, this exploi- 
tation should have no more interested observers 
than in the United States, especially in Colorado, 
Nevada, California, and other States, where the 
irrigation engineer, just beginning to be appreci- 
ated, and having now the material support of 
Congress, is succeeding the railway-builder as a de- 
veloper of the Western and Southwestern domain. 

There is a legend that the yearly flooding of the 
Nile is caused by the tears shed by Isis over the 
tomb of Osiris, and the question has for uncounted 
centuries been asked as a type of impossibility, 
"Can man arrest the tears of Isis as they flow?" 

The two great affluents of Abyssinia are the Blue 
Nile and the Atbara (the latter called by the na- 
tives Bahr-al- Aswad, or Black Nile), which, although 
streams of unusual grandeur during the period of 
Abyssinian rains, from the middle of June until 
September, are reduced to insignificance during 
the dry months. Then, the water-supply from 
Abyssinia having ceased, Egypt is forced to depend 
solely upon the equatorial lakes and the affluents 
of the White Nile until the rainy season shall have 
again flooded the two great Abyssinian arteries. 
That flood occurs about the 20th of June, and the 

i66 



Expansion by Irrigation 

rush of water pouring down the Blue Nile and the 
Atbara into the main channel inundates Egypt, 
and is the cause of its magical fertility. Not only 
is the inundation the effect of the Abyssinian rains, 
but the deposit of mud that has formed the Delta, 
and which is annually precipitated by the rising 
waters, is also due to the Abyssinian streams, 
chiefly to the Atbara, which carries a larger pro- 
portion of soil than any other tributary of the 
Nile. Therefore to the Atbara, — spanned by an 
American-built railroad-bridge, by the way, — above 
all other rivers, must the wealth and fertility of 
Egypt be attributed. In writing of his Nile ex- 
plorations. Baker employed this happy descrip- 
tion : " The equatorial lakes feed Egypt, but the 
Abyssinian rivers cause the inundation." 

There is a fascination in the unchangeable fea- 
tures of the Nile region. There are the Pyramids 
and Sphinx that have defied time ; the sandy des- 
erts through which Moses led his people, and the 
watering-places where their flocks were led to 
drink. There is no change in these ; and the poor 
people who dwell in Nubia and Upper Egypt on the 
banks of the melancholy river rolling toward the 
sea in the cloudless glare of a tropical sun, to-day 
as thousands of years ago, snatch every sand-bank 
from the receding stream, and plant melons, beans, 
and other articles of their simple diet. Not an 
inch of available soil is lost ; and day by day, as 
the stream decreases in spring and summer, fresh 
rows of vegetables are sown upon the newly 
acquired land. 

169 



Present-Day Egypt 

From the beginning of history down to the reign 
of Mehemet Ali, all Egypt followed but one rule 
of cultivation. The land was saturated in the 
flood season, and when the flood abated, seed was 
sown in the ooze, and the result was a single har- 
vest of great abundance. Mehemet Ali revolution- 
ized this system in the Delta. He introduced the 
cultivation of cotton and sugar, and the system of 
perennial irrigation which these highly profitable 
crops require. 

Napoleon had no sooner seen the Nile than he 
suggested a dam to hold back the surplus waters 
and irrigate a larger area. Lord Nelson and Gen- 
eral Abercrombie cut short Napoleon's plans for 
administering Egypt ; but his scheme for irrigat- 
ing the Delta had been published, and forty years 
later, in 1837, the construction of the great bar- 
rage, at the point where the Rosetta and Dami- 
etta branches of the Nile bifurcate and their 
arms inclose the Delta, was begun from plans by 
Mougel Bey, a Frenchman. It took twenty-four 
years to construct it, and then it was not a success, 
for when it was tried the force of the dammed-up 
water was too great for the masonry, which really 
rested on a foundation of mud. 

I overheard an amusing conversation one day at 
the barrage. The engineer in charge was explain- 
ing the importance of the structure to a British 
tourist, who apparently never permitted his patri- 
otic ardor to slumber when away from home. 
" Yes, it 's a great work," said he, " and these for- 

170 



Expansion by Irrigation 

eigners ought to better appreciate what we are 
doing for their good. This thing has put them on 
their feet financially, sure enough; but I don't 
believe they feel any gratitude for our having 
built it." " I beg your pardon," replied the gentle 
representative of the khedival government, " but 
it was designed and built by French engineers." 
" Was it I " ejaculated the visitor in sun-helmet and 
pugree. " I did n't know that. Well, anyway, they 
have to get an Englishman to take care of it ! " "I 
beg your pardon again," was the polite response of 
Liuener Bey, D. P. W. ; " I have the honor of being 
a native-born American citizen." The contretemps 
was of short duration, and as the touring Albion 
took his leave he remarked, with a twinkle in his 
eye : " I 'm going back to Shepheard's before some 
one tells me that Frenchmen built the Pyramids." 
The failure of the barrage could not properly be 
laid at the door of Mougel, for Mehemet Ali fur- 
nished him little support in the way of intelligent 
labor. It is probable that the foundations planned 
by so talented a man as Mougel would have been 
properly laid had skilled workmen been em- 
ployed; but he was allowed only half-starved 
fellaheen, receiving no pay. Millions of tons of 
stone and gravel were thrown into the river, and 
on this unreliable basis was piled the vast dike 
of masonry, pierced by one hundred and twenty 
arches. Mehemet Ali died before it was finished, 
and his successors carried the work forward in the 
most desultory manner, until, in 1861, it was de- 

171 



Present-Day Egypt 

clared completed. Two years later the structure 
would have been swept away had not the sluices 
been quickly raised. From 1863 until it was taken 
in hand by Sir Colin Moncrieff and Mr. Willcocks 
in 1884, it was called upon to perform but a frac- 
tion of the duty for which it was intended. By 
reason of Moncrieff's genius, the dam was in a 
few years rendered safe, and much of the prosper- 
ity of the Delta in these times is due to his tri- 
umph. 

If tradition be correct, Mougel's quick wit saved 
the Grizeh Pyramids from destruction. When he 
went to Mehemet Ali to be told where the stones 
for the barrage were to come from, the viceroy 
said: "You have those great useless heaps of 
stone; use them up, every block if need be, for 
the purpose." The engineer, knowing what odium 
would attach to his name if he agreed to this prop- 
osition, asked for a few days to make calculations. 
His autocratic master would give but one day. 
"When the engineer again appeared he said the 
cost of transporting the stone from the Pyramids 
would be greater than to quarry it anew in the 
hills. " Then quarry new stone," said the tyrant, 
and the monuments were saved. 

The laying of the Assuan dam's foundation- 
block, of syenite granite and weighing several 
tons, was an impressive function. Queen Victoria's 
third son, his Poyal Highness the Duke of Con- 
naught, performed the office with rule, level, mal- 
let, and silver trowel, surrounded by his amiable 
duchess and many distinguished officials. The 

172 



Expansion by Irrigation 

following inscription is chiseled on the face of the 
stone : 

H. H. Abbas Hilmi, Khedive. 



This Foundation-Stone 

was laid by 

H. R. H. The Duke of Connaught, 

12th February, 1899. 



H. E. Hussein Fakhry Pasha, 
Minister of Pubhc Works. 

After the laying of the stone, the Duke of Con- 
naught sent the following telegram to the khedive, 
which he wrote on the stone itself : " Having this 
moment completed the laying of the foundation- 
stone of the great dam here at the request of your 
Highness, I telegraph my warmest congratulations 
on the occasion of Bairam. Aethue." A telegram 
was likewise sent to the Queen, informing her 
Majesty that the great work had been formally 
commenced. 

It was a brilliant gathering that surrounded the 
khedive when he presided at the function celebrat- 
ing the completion of the dam, held on the broad 
causeway of the structure itself. There were pres- 
ent as guests of the Egyptian government royalties, 
great engineers and soldiers, diplomatists, and 
functionaries and notables of Egypt. Her Royal 
Highness the Duchess of Connaught was graciously 
invited by Abbas Hilmi Pasha to complete the work 
of building the great dam by placing the final stone 

^75 



Present-Day Egypt 

in position, and this she did, guiding the block with 
her own hands. It is inscribed : 

This stone was laid 

to complete the Dam 

by H. R. H. 

The Duchess of Connaught, 

10th December, 1902, 

in the 10th year of the reign of 

H. H. Abbas Hilmi, Khedive. 

The agricultural industry chiefly benefited by 
the Assuan dam and the tributary barrage at 
Assiut is cane-culture. The Nile cane is of such 
exceptional quality that much European capital 
has of late years been invested in its cultivation, 
while crushing-factories have gone up on the 
river's banks as if by magic. A vast amount of 
French and British capital found investment in 
sugar enterprises in Upper Egypt during the years 
when the Cuban crop was curtailed by strife and 
political uncertainties. Egyptian cane is prized as 
the peer of all canes in saccharine productivity, and 
experts have long held that the valley of the Nile 
presented to an unparalleled degree climatic and 
economical advantages for sugar-raising. 

It is rarely taken into account, when comparing 
Egyptian sugar with that of Asiatic and Malay- 
sian countries, that the former— shipped always 
from Alexandria — reaches European ports at about 
the cost for carriage that sugar from the far East 
pays as Suez Canal toll. Sugar has long been 
Egypt's crop of second importance. Statisticians 

176 



Expansion by Irrigation 

must hereafter take the Egyptian crop into ac- 
count when dealing with the world's production. 

Since the American Civil War it has been bred 
in the bone of Englishmen to want to render Lan- 
cashire spindles independent of United States 
cotton-fields. The wish finds frequent expression 
at meetings of British manufacturers, and the un- 
derlying object of the recently incorporated Man- 
chester Society for the Encouragement of Cotton 
Growing in the Colonies is readily discernible. 
France, too, has just formed a similar association, 
"in consequence of the increasing menace of 
American competition, which, if unchecked, will be- 
come a monopoly," its prospectus stated. English 
and French journals feelingly described the official 
completion of the Assuan dam, and said that a 
gigantic step had thus been taken toward freeing 
Europe from the thraldom of American cotton. 
In her East African colonies, G-ermany is experi- 
menting with cotton-growing, and has been re- 
warded by producing a few bales of the long- 
staple, silky variety, similar to that of the Nile. 

The Delta of the Nile is now a great cotton-field, 
and cultivation of the fiber has more than doubled 
since England took Egypt in hand. As rapidly as 
science adds area to the Delta, the soil thus rescued 
from the desert is usually planted with cotton. An 
average year's crop is now equal to one million one 
hundred thousand bales of five hundred pounds 
each, and all this is sold in foreign markets at a 
price two cents per pound in excess of quotations 
for good American upland cotton. It is its fiber, 

177 



Present-Day Egypt 

nearly an inch and a half long, that gives Egyptian 
cotton its peculiar value. G-reat as the price is, this 
is not the only advantage possessed by the fellah 
cotton-grower over the planter of our Southern 
States, for the magical fecundity of the Nile soil 
permits the harvesting of a crop averaging five 
hundredweight to the acre. This is twice what 
American planters get from an acre, and the Nilot 
is exempt from disastrous elements ever menacing 
his American rival. In the unlikely event of hav- 
ing to sell his cotton at the same price as the 
American, even then he could make a profit. His 
prosperity is assured so long as the Southern 
planter accepts the opinion that long-fiber cotton 
can be grown only on the Nile, and that European 
manufacturers will always be content to use the 
American common staple. 

Egyptian cotton has become a necessity, not only 
in Europe but in the United States as well, and it 
brings to Egypt, for staple and seed, nearly fifty- 
five million dollars per year, which sum is sufficient 
to pay the interest on her enormous foreign debt, 
carry on the government, and, when there are no 
military operations up the Nile, leave something in 
the treasury. The United States is buying a hun- 
dred and fifty thousand bales of Egyptian cotton 
annually, and its consumption increases by leaps 
and bounds. 

As a fact, cotton-culture will receive compara- 
tively little impetus from the augmented irrigation 
facilities in Egypt, and the area of the crop will 
probably never extend much beyond the present 

178 




NATIVES HAULING A BOAT UP THE "GREAT GATE," FIRST CATARACT. 



Expansion by Irrigation 

limits of the Delta. Some immediate increase of 
territory devoted to the fiber is inevitable, but it 
is my judgment that a crop of a million 750-pound 
bales (equal to a million and a half American 
bales) is the maximum output to be looked for 
for several years to come. I repeat that the new 
irrigation facilities in Upper Egypt mean a large 
enhancement of the sugar crop; and when the 
Sudan can be made to pay tribute in a consider- 
able way to husbandry it will be in the form of 
cereals. That the Sudan is to be actively exploited 
may be inferred from the statement made at Khar- 
tum, on the 29th of January, 1903, by Lord Cromer, 
who said that the construction of a railway by the 
Anglo-Egyptian administration from Khartum to 
Suakim, on the Red Sea, was to be entered upon in 
the very near future. 

Every rose has its thorn ; and when the Assuan 
reservoir was first filled hundreds of tourists were 
shocked to find Philse flooded, its superb struc- 
tures rising without meaning from a mirroring 
lake, and they have poured out their angry indig- 
nation through " letters " to favorite newspapers at 
home. 

Reluctance or fear of injuring the architectural 
treasures of Philee compelled the British adminis- 
tration of Egypt to hesitate for years about dam- 
ming the Nile at the first cataract, and I always 
believed that the real purpose of the international 
commission to consider Nile sites was to obtain 
outside certification that the Assuan location was 
preeminent, and that the esthetic must yield to 

i8i 



Present-Day Egypt 

the utilitarian. Probably no English engineer 
ever seriously thought of building a dam at any 
other point. When the subject was mooted eight 
years ago, and the fact published that Phil^ was 
threatened, meetings were held by learned socie- 
ties everywhere to protest against possible desecra- 
tion, and memorials poured in upon the Egyptian 
government from antiquarians, Egyptologists, 
archaeologists, and literary people, praying that 
Philge should be undisturbed. The late Sir Fred- 
erick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy, 
did not hesitate to say that " any tampering with 
Philas would be a lasting blot on the British occu- 
pation of Egypt." A torrent of newspaper invective 
was hurled at Britain's rule of the Nile, in which 
the word " vandalism " was frequently used. 

"Why threaten to destroy one of the world's 
most priceless gems, in order that European hold- 
ers of Egyptian bonds might be more certain of 
their interest ? " was the universal inquiry. " What 
is a useless temple," retorted the engineers, "in 
comparison with a work involving the welfare of 
millions of human beings ? " 

To pacify public opinion, a modified scheme was 
prepared, calling for the present dam, two thirds 
as high as first proposed, but which, its authors 
confessed, would cause the foundations of "Pha- 
raoh's Bed" and the pylons and pavilion to be 
submerged for a few months in the year. It is 
open to suspicion that the zealous engineers un- 
derstated the extent of the submergence, and 
I was not surprised to learn that the dam was 

182 



Expansion by Irrigation 

higher than the elevation that was going to estab- 
lish a mean between the esthetic and the utilitarian. 

Read between the lines, this quotation from a 
document published by the chief engineer of the 
Assuan enterprise should have been sufficient to 
prepare the world for disquieting news from Philae : 
"When the reservoir is full, the island of Philae 
will in places be slightly fl[ooded. As the temples 
are founded partly on loose silt and sand, the 
saturation of the hitherto dry soil would cause 
settlements, and no doubt injury to the ruins. 
To obviate this risk, all the important parts, in- 
cluding the well-known kiosk or ' Pharaoh's Bed,' 
have been either carried on steel girders or under- 
pinned down to rock, or, failing that, to the pres- 
ent saturation level. It need hardly be said that, 
having regard to the shattered condition of the 
columns and entablatures, the friability of the 
stone, and the running sand foundation, the pro- 
cess of underpinning was an exceptionally diffi- 
cult and dangerous task." 

After all, Philse's remains, noble as they are, 
appear comparatively young beside many of the 
monuments of this hoary land. They do not, it is 
said, go as far back as 300 b. c. Pharaoh's Bed 
was really built in Roman times, though, presu- 
mably, by native architects. 

As the revised edition of this work is being pre- 
pared, a correspondent writes me : " Of all the 
lakes I have seen there is none that I can 
compare with the lake which the great dam is 
answerable for. Steamers that once lay twenty- 

183 



Present- Day Egypt 

five feet below the post-office at Shelal can now 
steam over the roof of that building, if it were 
in existence. Tourists who have had a very stiff 
and dusty climb to reach the kiosk on Philse can 
now enter between the columns in a rowboat. 
Philse to Kalabsheh is now devoid of cultivated 
land, the water reaching to the foot of the rocky 
hills; the villages which once stood along the 
banks have disappeared, as have also the inhabi- 
tants, with the exception of a few who have built 
their huts on the mountain-side. To reach the 
temple of Taffeh, the steamers must pass under 
overhanging date-palms and over the house-tops 
of a once existing village. It is gratifying to note 
that the water has in no place reached the temples, 
though in some instances it reaches within a 
stone's throw; I speak of the temples south of 
Philae, viz., Dahbood, Cartasset, Taffeh, etc. At 
Kalabsheh there is a frontage which leads down 
to the river, ending with a heavy stone parapet, 
which the steamers can now use as a quay with- 
out the aid of a gangway. At some of the villages 
the natives beg for bakshish, on a plea that the 
water has covered their land, and therefore de- 
prived them of their living." 

And another thorn, protruded by the scientific 
development of Egypt,— one that will interest 
tourists more than that spoken of a few pages 
back,— is the crumbling of the Sphinx. It is 
one of the ironies of fate that this relic of a for- 
mer civilization is succumbing to the changes of 
climate due to the irrigation works which have 

184 



Expansion by Irrigation 

of late years been carried out. For centuries the 
land through which the Lower Nile flows has been 
watered solely by the river. But modern enter- 
prise has wrought changes. Trees have been 
planted, and extensive irrigation has rendered 
fertile land which was formerly desert. Thus, 
falls of rain— rare in sandy plains, but usually 
attendant on foliage and fertile ground— are be- 
coming more and more frequent, and the great 
Sphinx, which has remained in a marvelous state 
of preservation owing to the dryness of the atmo- 
sphere, is beginning to show signs of decay, for the 
wet, softening the exterior of the stone, assists the 
fierce sand-storms to grind away the surface. 

The accumulation of sand around the Sphinx 
was in ancient times prevented by crude brick 
walls, remains of which are still visible, and these 
walls it is now proposed to restore. A further 
suggestion is the erection, above and around the 
Sphinx, of a sheltering structure, the architectural 
design of which shall be in keeping with the mon- 
ument's antiquity. 

No reader of the foregoing remarks need take 
alarm at the reported crumbling of the Sphinx, 
unless having a philanthropic regard for very 
remote posterity. In all probability the Sphinx 
will^be at Gizeh when the crack of doom is sounded, 
and impairment of feature and form, — already in- 
scrutable, — unless rapid, will but add to its myste- 
rious origin and purpose. 



185 



CHAPTER VI 

THE STOEY OF THE SUEZ CANAL 

VOCABULARIES of praise and censure have 
been well-nigh exhausted on Ismail Pasha 
and Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose deaths were 
chronicled, during my residence in Cairo, simply as 
items of news rather than events; but the nine- 
teenth century is indebted to them for one of its 
greatest achievements, a work of incalculable value 
to the whole world, Egypt alone excepted. Their 
lives had run in channels strangely similar. Each 
had been a mighty personage, the cynosure of the 
world's gaze; and, in the case of each, death de- 
layed until the man's importance had been forgot- 
ten in a slough of degradation, the one in exile, 
the other in the oblivion of mental decay. 

That Egypt reaps no benefit from the interna- 
tional waterway crossing its domain, there uniting 
the Orient with the Occident, is an amazing state- 
ment, manifestly. And it is a sad fact that the 
Suez Canal, which has played a mighty political part 
with European nations, has made and unmade khe- 
dives, and by a strange fatality has passed from the 
control of the nation that built it to that of the 
country that fought its construction strenuously, 

i86 



Story of the Suez Canal 

is responsible for the mortgaging of the Egyptian 
people, body and soul, inasmuch as it inspired and 
developed to an inordinate degree the borrowing 
habit of two of their rulers. Prior to the giving 
of the canal concession in 1856, by Viceroy Said, 
Egypt had no debt whatever. Her credit was first 
pledged in Europe by Said Pasha, who, to add lus- 
ter to his name, subscribed seventeen million dol- 
lars to the stock of the canal enterprise, although 
the undertaking was to cost Egypt nothing, and 
for ninety-nine years the country was to receive 
from it fifteen per cent, of the gross revenue. 
Said's vainglorious act laid the corner-stone of 
Egypt's new house of bondage. 

Ismail, succeeding to the throne, lent himself 
readily to the seductive project. Learning how 
easy it was to get money simply by affixing his 
signature to an innocent-looking paper, thought- 
fully prepared in Europe, thenceforth there was 
frequent exchange between the khedive and the 
money-capitals of Europe of these innocent-look- 
ing papers for gold. There were many investors 
in the canal scheme, of course ; but it seemed as if 
Egypt was ever feeding the insatiable monster with 
money, and human life as well; for four fifths of 
the laborers who dug the vast ditch were drafted 
from the Egyptian peasantry, and so poorly cared 
for that thousands died. A day of reckoning came, 
however, when financial engagements could not be 
met; for Egypt was hypothecated to its utmost 
value, and the usurers of Europe made such bitter 
outcry that Ismail Pasha was forced by the Sultan, 

187 



Present-Day Egypt 

the actual sovereign of the country, to surrender 
his throne and go into exile. Foreseeing the 
crash, Ismail had sold his personal shares in the 
canal to the British government for twenty million 
dollars, and on these the Egyptian treasury faith- 
fully paid England five per cent, interest for twenty 
years. This purchase illustrated Lord Beacons- 
field's shrewdness, for by prompt action he pre- 
vented these shares from going to France. To-day 
they are worth more than four times what was 
paid for them, and secure to England the voting 
control in canal affairs. The stipulation in the 
concession that Egypt should receive fifteen per 
cent, of the tolls had also been marketed, Ismail 
pledging this consideration as security on which to 
borrow a few millions when the French company 
could raise no more money. Thus, having no 
maritime interests, and possessing not a share in 
the enterprise, no pecuniary benefit can accrue to 
the Egyptian people from the Suez Canal. And, 
further, it can be conjectured that, had Ismail not 
burdened his subjects with overwhelming indebt- 
edness, thereby breeding discontent, there would 
have been no European interference with Egyptian 
finances, involving his dethronement; no Arabi 
rebellion, and no British army of occupation. 

The idea of a water communication between the 
Mediterranean and the Red Sea is as old as his- 
tory, and nearly every ruler of Egypt, from Seti, 
father of Rameses the Great, to Napoleon Bona- 
parte, gave attention to the problem, with vary- 
ing degrees of success. Strabo asserted that Seti, 

1 88 



Story of the Suez Canal 

fourteen centuries before the Christian era, cut a 
canal fifty-seven miles long, from Bubastis, near 
the present town of Zagazig, on the Pelusiac branch 
of the Nile, to Heroopolis, at the head of the Bitter 
Lakes, then forming the northern extremity of the 
Gulf of Suez. Eight hundred years later, says 
Herodotus, the second Necho gave his attention to 
canal-building, persevering in the task until one 
hundred and twenty thousand lives had been sac- 
rificed, but abandoning the undertaking because the 
oracle he consulted told him that dire results would 
follow the completion of his labors, and Egypt be 
surrendered to barbarians— or, in other words, the 
making of a canal would so entangle the Egyptians 
with foreign interests that their safety would be 
imperiled. A century later came the Persian 
Darius, son of Hystaspes, who took up the work 
abandoned by Necho ; but being assured by cer- 
tain wise men that the land would be deluged, he 
gave up the task when near its completion. 
Traces of Necho's canal, so archaeologists claim, are 
still distinguishable near the southern end of the 
Bitter Lakes. The project of Necho, as well as 
that of Darius, involved the transhipment of cargo 
at Heroopolis, and each was unsatisfactory for 
other reasons. To remedy these defects, Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, in b. c. 285, joined the Nile canal with 
the Heroopolite Gulf by means of locks, opening 
when a vessel wished to pass. The southern ter- 
minus of this waterway was at Arsinoe, near the 
Suez of to-day. The failure of Cleopatra's ships to 
escape through this canal into the Red Sea, two 

189 



Present-Day Egypt 

centuries later, indicates that it had fallen into dis- 
use and was most likely unnavigable. The Roman 
emperors Trajan and Hadrian aspired each in his 
time to make it possible for ships to go from one 
sea to another, but the desert sands finally obliter- 
ated their efforts to pierce the Suez Isthmus. 

In the interval of centuries thus spanned, the 
Nile had almost deserted its Pelusiac branch, and 
Roman engineers, coming later, tapped the great 
river above its bifurcation, near the capital of the 
present day, and ran a new canal from that point 
to the old Bubastic canal, which they cleared and 
restored to use. But this system was only tem- 
porarily successful, and Amrou, the Arabian con- 
queror, found inter-sea navigation impossible, and 
himself essayed, with partial success, to solve the 
great problem. Then, after the sands of the Arabian 
desert had for centuries asserted their dominion, 
came the great Napoleon, to whom all things were 
possible. Shortly after he had conquered the an- 
cient land of the Pharaohs, in 1798, his engineers 
were given the task of bringing the Mediterranean 
into communication with the Gulf of Suez. They 
studied the project assiduously, and estimating 
from their surveys, as others before them had done, 
that the Mediterranean was thirty feet below the 
level of the Red Sea, recommended a complicated 
scheme calling for sluices and locks. Napoleon's 
evacuation of Egypt in 1801 caused the work to be 
dropped while yet in embryo. 

Mehemet Ali probably detected the dangers fore- 
shadowed by the oracle of old when urged to con- 

190 



Story of the Suez Canal 

struct a ship-canal across his territory. This sol- 
dier who had founded a dynasty by successive deeds 
of bravery, and had butchered three or four hun- 
dred Mamelukes whom he had asked to a feast, 
could not have been suspected of lacking in dar- 
ing; but he never fully yielded to the blandish- 
ments of foreigners striving to get him interested 
in isthmian canalization. His sagacious intellect 
kept him from embarking therein, save in a tenta- 
tive way. The discovery in 1830, by Lieutenant 
Waghorn, that the level of the two seas was nearly 
identical, failed even to impress the hard-headed 
viceroy. He commissioned Linant Pasha, however, 
to prepare a plan for a canal across the narrowest 
part of the isthmus, from Tilreh to Suez; but 
as this Frenchman accepted the survey of Bona- 
parte's engineers, and discredited the statement of 
Waghorn as to the level of the waters, the vice- 
roy still withheld his confidence from the scheme. 
In 1846 he asked a board of engineers, comprising 
representatives of England, France, and Austria, to 
solve once for all the question of the sea-levels. 
These experts confirmed the judgment of the Eng- 
lishman, Waghorn ; but the British member of the 
board, the renowned Robert Stephenson, with his 
instinct for railway-making, persuaded Mehemet 
Ali to construct instead a railway from Cairo to 
Suez, in connection with the line from Alexandria. 
This was done, and it formed the connecting-link 
between Europe and the East, and brought great 
profit, and no political dangers, to Egypt. 

In the meantime another mind was occupied 

193 



Present-Day Egypt 

with the project. When Waghorn was carrying on 
his controversy, young Ferdinand de Lesseps was 
an attache at the French consulate-general in 
Cairo, and there conceived the idea of accomplish- 
ing what had baffled Pharaohs, Ptolemies, and a 
Bonaparte. Eapid promotion in the diplomatic 
service in no way lessened his ambition some day 
to wed the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. For 
more than twenty years this was his constant 
dream, until, in 1854, once more in Egypt, facile, 
accomplished, impulsive, and convincing, he de- 
veloped his plan to the viceroy. Said Pasha. On 
January 5, 1856, De Lesseps was given a concession 
to build the canal. With the coveted document 
in his pocket, he realized that his aspirations to be 
famous, some day to be " Le grand Fran^ais," were 
to be fulfilled; and incidentally he saw an effec- 
tive way of crushing the Waghorn "overland 
route" from Alexandria to Suez, detested by 
Frenchmen because the creation of a Britisher. 

Said lacked the superstitious caution of his 
grandfather, Mehemet Ali, and cared nothing for 
the opinion of an antiquated oracle, if he had ever 
heard of it. Paris was his Mecca; and, loving 
Frenchmen as he did, he saw a most agreeable way 
of making his own name immortal, and his coun- 
try so prosperous that it would attain to a dazzling 
position in the family of nations— all by means of 
the canal, through the facile and convincing De 
Lesseps. The canal was not to cost Said or his 
people a single franc; on the contrary, fifteen per 
cent, of the revenue coming from its operation was 

194 



Story of the Suez Canal 

to flow into the national purse ; and at the end of 
only ninety-nine years the magnificent enterprise 
would belong to Egypt ! 

The concession gave M. de Lesseps, and "La 
Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de 
Suez," to be created by him, the monopoly of 
operating a waterway to be constructed in a direct 
line across the isthmus, utilizing the chain of Bit- 
ter Lakes on the south, and intersecting on the 
north the vast marsh called Lake Menzaleh. In no 
sense was the arrangement a contract involving any 
obligation on Egypt, and it was stipulated that at 
the end of the period for which the concession was 
given everything was to revert to the Egyptian 
government, on payment of the actual value of im- 
provements on the banks of the canal, as determined 
by arbitration. The concessionaries were also to 
biiild at their own cost a smaller canal from the Nile 
to the line of the ship-canal, primarily to supply the 
work-people with fresh water, and ultimately for 
commercial purposes. To prevent bringing to his 
country thousands of laborers, representing the 
flotsam and jetsam of southern Europe, and mer- 
cenaries of all shades, the viceroy exacted the right 
of furnishing native laborers if he chose, at a 
nominal expense to the company ; and it was agreed 
by the latter that the fellaheen diggers would be 
fed and have all necessary medical and hospital 
facilities. 

It was stipulated and reiterated that all these 
conditions, as well as the concession itself, should 
be valid only when the Sultan of Turkey, the suze- 

19s 



Present-Day Egypt 

rain of Egypt, should give his sanction thereto. 
De Lesseps and his associates were to arrange the 
matter at Constantinople, providing whatever in- 
centive in the way of bakshish they might find 
necessary. 

De Lesseps's initial endeavors to secure funds 
for his company were disappointing in the ex- 
treme. French capital in those days was averse 
to investment away from home ; and, besides, the 
Suez scheme was a startling novelty, and tra- 
ditions were against it. France had but recently 
emerged from the Crimean campaign, and for a 
time, at least, money was wanted at home. Ger- 
man bankers, close-fisted and unimaginative, saw 
nothing financially attractive in the Paris enter- 
prise. England was opposed to it intuitively. 
London journals raised a howl against the French 
project that was to provide a short cut to India 
for any Tom, Dick, or Harry. As a consequence, 
Lombard Street said " No," emphatically, and made 
the fact known to all the world ; and thereafter all 
possible difficulties were thrown in the way of the 
scheme by Lord Palmerston's ministry. 

The sum that De Lesseps could raise among his 
friends was but a drop in the bucket. What he 
wanted was two hundred million francs. A san- 
guine engineer had assured him that this amount 
would be sufficient for ditch, buildings, machinery, 
and everything. Nothing had yet been done to 
secure the Constantinople approval, probably be- 
cause there was no money. There was an unprom- 
ising drag to the whole matter. Something had to 

196 



Story of the Suez Canal 

be done, and the man who had spent twenty-four 
years in meditation over the canal scheme saw that 
he alone must do it. To create the Suez Canal 
was to be a feat of financiering, not of engineering. 

There was the easy-going Said, down in Egypt. 
Why not have a try at him I Said loved French- 
men, and believed the Suez Canal was to make his 
name immortal. So the intrepid diplomat hurried 
to Cairo and saw the viceroy. " Certainly," was 
his reply to De Lesseps's appeal, and he actually 
loaned the money required for making the sur- 
veys and for exploiting the company throughout 
Europe— 2,394,914 francs in all. Had the Egyp- 
tian viceroy said " No " as vigorously as had the 
London bankers, how different would the modern 
history of Egypt read, and how different would be 
the material condition of the people of Egypt ! 

Encouraged by his success with Said Pasha, De 
Lesseps thought the time propitious for getting 
from him another concession, cognate but subor- 
dinate to the great scheme. This was to connect 
the canal bringing fresh water from the Nile with 
another small canal running from Ismailia to the 
termini of the great ship-canal. The concession 
permitted De Lesseps and his associates to sell irri- 
gation privileges from this special waterway ; and 
wherever the magical water of Father Nile can be 
turned upon the desert, the sands thereof blossom 
like the rose. 

In 1860 the Paris company of the long name was 
again without a copper in its cash-box, and in debt 
to an extent making the prospect almost hopeless. 

197 



Present-Day Egypt 

For two years the subscription books had been 
open without attracting serious investors. Again 
did the resourceful De Lesseps think of the amiable 
pasha down in Egypt, and again was he appealed 
to for succor. Said was this time induced to sub- 
scribe for 177,662 shares out of the 400,000 repre- 
senting the Suez company's total capitalization; 
and he further pledged himself to contribute in 
other ways to the construction of the canal— 
and this was the affair that originally was to cost 
Egypt not a piaster! The viceroy's magnificent 
subscription dazzled impressionable France, and 
for a time a torrent of gold flowed into the Paris 
offices of the Suez company. When it came 
time for Said to pay for the bonds he had so 
dramatically bespoken, however, he was forced to 
confess that he was suffering from financial cramp 
himself, and could supply no more cash. " No mat- 
ter," said the members of the canal ring ; " we can 
get the viceroy's promises to pay discounted in 
Europe." This they did, the obligations taking the 
form of treasury warrants, bearing ten per cent. 
interest, and payable in four yearly instalments. 
These obligations, with their interest, the whole a 
charge upon the Egyptian treasury, totaled 24,- 
705,734 francs! Was it to be wondered at that 
Egypt became a happy hunting-ground for finan- 
cial sportsmen ? 

In 1863 the magnificent Ismail inherited the 
viceroyship from his deceased uncle. This placed 
a prince of immense fortune in control of Egypt, 
and the impecunious canal ring blessed the good 

198 



Story of the Suez Canal 

luck that had given them another Oriental, who 
likewise loved Frenchmen, to fatten on. At their 
first interview with Ismail Pasha they made a point 
of their own generosity, assuring him that as one 
of the fresh-water canals appeared to them to be 
needless, they would surrender the special conces- 
sion under which it was to have been constructed, 
on condition that the new viceroy would agree to 
complete the other minor canal at his own cost — 
but for the company's benefit. These suave trick- 
sters certainly had formed a strange estimate of the 
character of the new ruler ; and Ismail must have 
recognized the colossal impudence of the company's 
request, surely. Had he investigated, he, too, would 
have learned that the small canal in question could 
not possibly be constructed because of legal com- 
plications and rights of jurisdiction. But, not 
haunted by the ghosts of his astute relative, Me- 
hemet Ali, and that other King of Egypt, Pharaoh 
Necho, he assented to the request of the French- 
men, thereby putting practically another fifty mil- 
lion francs into the Suez company's coffers. 

The digging of the vast ditch was now only a quar- 
ter completed. But the vigilant promoters of the 
enterprise recognized in Ismail a valued " friend," 
and to their minds an essential problem in con- 
nection with their work had been solved. Ismail 
now called himself khedive,^ and was negotiating 

1 In 1866, in consideration of a large sum of money, Ismail ob- 
tained the sanction of the Sublime Porte to a new order of succession 
based on the law of primogeniture ; and in 1867 he was raised to the 
rank of khedive. In 1873 Khedive Ismail obtained a new firman, 
confirming and extending his privileges in the matter of indepen- 

20I 



Present- Day Egypt 

at Stamboul for a firman that would change the 
order of inheritance in the ruling family, and had 
another card up his sleeve that he hoped would 
give him full sovereignty. 

Time went on, and work on the canal proceeded 
with halting pace. Although the khedive ordered 
twenty-five thousand peasants every three months 
to the isthmus, canal-making by a process so primi- 
tive as the scooping of the sand with bare hands 
into palm-leaf baskets, to be carried up the steep 
bank and emptied, without mechanical assistance 
of any sort, was slow work. The taskmasters used 
the lash liberally, but forgot about the agreement 
to provide for the medical and sanitary welfare of 
the poor slaves. The food was wretched and in- 
sufficient ; and the matter of the nominal compen- 
sation — well, that was something that did not con- 
cern the fellaheen, forced to labor in the corvee. 
Under the heat of summer the wretched Arabs 
perished by thousands, and Europe was properly 
indignant at the tales of suffering and inhumanity 
to be read in every newspaper. 

Long viewing with distrust and disapproval the 
work that in time was to give the world an open 
sesame to their treasure-house in the East, English 
people were particularly loud in their outcry against 
the treatment of the poor Egyptians. John Bull's 
philanthropy and political interest were aroused to 

dence of administration and judiciaries, right of concluding treaties 
of commerce with foreign governments, right of coining money, right 
of borrowing money, and permission to increase his army and navy. 
These were the provisions of autonomy, in consideration of which 
he was to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan of £681,538. 

202 



Story of the Suez Canal 

simultaneous action, the outcome being a spirited 
appeal to the Sublime Porte to have the barbarities 
stopped. The Sultan was entreated, it is also 
claimed, to give orders to have the work on the 
canal cease altogether. This he could do, for his 
Imperial Majesty had never confirmed the conces- 
sion under which the canal was being built. For 
a reason not difficult to discern, M. de Lesseps had 
omitted to consult him, and the gentlemen forming 
his divan, on the momentous subject. 

French diplomacy was called upon to nullify the 
effect of Great Britain's interference, the canal ring 
swarmed on the Bosporus— and the Sultan an- 
nounced a happy compromise of the difficulty, by 
formally approving the concession of his vassal, on 
condition that the peasant should no longer be 
forced to do the digging ; this was specifically for- 
bidden. The Sultan even hinted at the propriety 
of employing machinery. 

Here was a grievance of real magnitude, the De 
Lesseps cohort claimed; and they promptly an- 
nounced their determination to hold the khedive 
responsible for the Sultan's action, although the 
imperial indorsement was an essential clause in 
the Said concession, and any legal tribunal would 
have said there was no breach of contract — for no 
contract existed, and the concession imposed no 
obligation or liability upon Egypt. French jour- 
nals in the pay of the canal raised a furious out- 
cry, and De Lesseps and his lieutenants beat their 
tom-toms with unceasing clamor, insisting that 
without fellah labor the canal could never be 



10 



203 



Present-Day Egypt 

finished, and that ruin, ignominious ruin, conse- 
quently stared the enterprise in the face. It was 
an audacious plea; for at the time when their 
shrieks were loudest, infiltration from the sea and 
neighboring lakes had flooded the big trench to an 
extent that practically put at an end the need of 
an army of men, unless amphibious men could be 
found. The point had been reached where steam- 
dredges must be employed. Yet the canal com- 
pany formulated a bill of damages of portentous 
amount, and politely requested the khedive to 
settle. Ismail protested, pointed to the stipula- 
tions of the concession, and pleaded for justice. 
Daily fomented by the French press, the dispute 
became the talk of Europe. Ismail set too high 
a value upon negotiations of a personal nature at 
Constantinople to dare appeal to the Sultan for a 
reconsideration of his canal decision, and had no 
desire to make ducks and drakes of his chances for 
securing absolute independence. So he preserved 
a serene exterior and awaited developments, being 
now heartily tired of the canal scheme and all con- 
nected with it. 

Trusting to find a way of advantageously break- 
ing the deadlock, De Lesseps again went to Cairo, 
and for weeks plied the khedive with arguments 
intended to convince him of his liability. The 
medium of arbitration, as a solvent of stubborn 
differences of opinion, was finally brought to his 
notice by the diplomatic De Lesseps ; and Ismail 
was actually talked into consenting to let the 
Emperor of the French weigh the pros and cons of 

204 



Story of the Suez Canal 

the situation, his decision to be final and binding. 
The influence compelling the khedive to accept 
Napoleon III as umpire in the dispute between 
himself and the French people— for the Suez Canal 
had now become almost a national affair — must 
have been something unusually potent, perhaps 
hypnotic. Ismail's abiding faith in Napoleon was 
sublime, and he was fashioning his own life in more 
ways than one upon that of the emperor ; and, be- 
sides, Ismail was hoping to make Cairo a second 
Paris. The khedive should have remembered that 
M. de Lesseps was a favorite at the Tuileries, and 
that his kinship with the empress was recognized. 

The emperor was willing to serve; and with 
amazing promptness he rendered a decision that 
must have shattered any remaining trust that 
Ismail had in humanity, for it gave the canal peo- 
ple even heavier damages than they had asked for, 
and opened the way for the presentation of a sec- 
ond claim by them. Looked at in any light. Napo- 
leon's monstrous award becomes one of the strong- 
est arguments against arbitration by a single 
person, possessing no legal education or judicial 
aptitude, that history reveals. 

Napoleon decided that the provision relating to 
the supply of native labor was of the nature of a 
contract, and that Ismail was responsible for the 
consequences of its violation. For this the khe- 
dive was to pay the company thirty-eight million 
francs, which sum, coming at the very moment it 
was needed, enabled the company to purchase the 
labor-saving machinery now indispensable to com- 

205 



Present-Day Egypt 

pleting the canal. Secondly, the emperor decided 
that the retrocession of the company's rights in 
the small fresh-water canal deprived them of 
large prospective profits through the renting of 
lands and providing irrigation therefor. The 
company's bookkeeper ingeniously figured expen- 
ditures of seven and a half million francs up to 
the time the concession was resigned, which, with 
interest, made a round ten million francs. Napo- 
leon further gave his countrymen six million francs 
for the supposititious loss of water-tolls, and thirty 
million more for the assumed value of the lands that 
would have been rendered productive by the sweet- 
water canal, had it been made. This canal, it will 
be remembered, was not proceeded with because 
the concessionaries requested Ismail to take back 
the authorization for its construction ; yet Emperor 
Napoleon compelled the khedive to pay forty-six 
million francs for allowing the concession to be 
canceled. 

The entire award footed up eighty-four million 
francs, and so successful was the canal ring in this 
essay at financiering that some of its members 
grumbled because more items had not been in- 
cluded in the schedule of claims laid before the 
emperor for adjudication. They had actually for- 
gotten to make a demand for the "value of the 
fish " in the canal that was never built. A supple- 
mentary bill was sent to Ismail, consequently ; and 
when he demurred, arbitration was again sug- 
gested. He had taken his medicine without flinch- 
ing in the first case, but had had enough arbitration 

206 




EGYPTIAN PI40T0TYPE OF FERRIS WHEEL, HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD. 



Story of the Suez Canal 

in that one dose to last the rest of Ms life. He 
preferred compromising a disputed claim, believ- 
ing it would be cheaper and perhaps end the 
matter. "Take what you must, but give me a 
receipt in full," cried the unhappy khedive. The 
canal harpies got another forty million francs for 
the " fish " claim and other more or less specious 
allegations of loss, included in which payment were 
ten million francs for the repurchase of some lands 
sold to the company five years before by Said 
Pasha for a quarter of the sum. 

The Egyptian treasury was empty, national prog- 
ress was at a standstill, and Ismail's credit with the 
money-lenders was as shaky as his political posi- 
tion at Constantinople, before the canal leeches 
dropped their quarry. It is estimated by compe- 
tent experts that the Suez Canal, directly and in- 
directly, cost Egypt close upon eighty-five million 
dollars, of which only twenty million dollars are rep- 
resented in any manner in the capital stock of the 
now prosperous Compagnie Universelle du Canal 
Maritime de Suez : this was the personal holding 
of Ismail in the undertaking, which he practically 
surrendered to creditors a short time before his 
dethronement, the British government being the 
purchaser. 

The banished khedive's legacy to his country 
was a debt of four hundred and fifty million dol- 
lars, probably not more than two thirds of which 
sum ever left the hands of the bankers' agents and 
negotiators in Europe. Docks and breakwaters 
at Alexandria and Suez, and a few hundred miles 

209 



Present-Day Egypt 

of railways and telegraphs, represented the more 
important benefits to his people ; for steam- vessels 
of obsolete type, unwieldy yachts, a score or more 
of stucco palaces, gilded coaches, and operatic 
paraphernalia were not regarded as very impor- 
tant assets. 

After more than ten years' labor, and the display 
of an energy and perseverance on the part of its 
chief promoter that formed not the least heroic 
feature of the undertaking, the new Bosporus be- 
tween Africa and Asia was ready in 1869 for 
traffic.^ The magnanimous Oriental, plundered as 
he had been on an unprecedented scale, determined 
to make the event of the opening so resplendent as 
to prevent the world from soon forgetting it. The 
inauguration of the great enterprise, in Novem- 
ber, was made the occasion of such festivities as 
rivaled the traditions of Harun-al-Rashid and Ak- 
bar. The presence of the Empress of the French, 
the Emperor of Austria, the Prince and Princess of 
"Wales, and a score of royalties from Continental 
courts, statesmen, ambassadors, and celebrities be- 
yond count, and representative squadrons from 
the navy of every important government, rendered 

1 " On March 18, 1869, the water of the Mediterranean was allowed 
to flow into the nearly dry, salt-incrusted basins of the Bitter Lakes, 
portions of which lay thirty or forty feet below the level of the sea. 
The first encounter of the waters of the two seas was by no means 
of an amicable character ; they met boisterously, and then recoiled 
from the attack ; but soon, as if commanded by a quos ego of Nep- 
tune, they peacefully mingled, and the ocean once more gained pos- 
session of the land which it had covered at a very remote period, but 
only on condition of rendering service to the traffic of the world."— 
Stephan. 

2IO 



Story of the Suez Canal 

the occasion a veritable "triumpli" to the great 
Frenchman. Forty-eight ships conveyed the illus- 
trious guests of the khedive— for Ismail was footing 
the bill— through the canal ; and, as if illustrating 
the irony of fate and presaging the future, the first 
vessel that paid dues after the formal opening flew 
the British flag. The fetes in Cairo, transforming 
the capital into fairy-land for a month, at Ismail's 
bidding, cost that forgiving prince or his govern- 
ment twenty-one million dollars. 

There was a movement in France at about the 
time of De Lesseps's death to have his name for- 
mally given to the canal, but the negotiations to 
that end were never realized. Surprise had be- 
fore been felt that this had not been done, and 
but for the lamentable Panama affair, impoverish- 
ing thousands of French homes and smirching the 
reputations of many statesmen, M. de Lesseps 
would probably have had the satisfaction, while 
still in the full enjoyment of his faculties, of seeing 
his name indissolubly linked with his work. It is 
not strange, however, that while Said Pasha gave 
his name to an important town and harbor,^ Ismail 

1 The Port Said entrance of the canal is protected by two massive 
piers, the eastern running out into the sea toward the north for a 
mile, and the western running toward the northeast for nearly 
two miles. Where they start from the land these piers are fourteen 
hundred and forty yards apart, but their extremities approach within 
seven hundred and seventy yards of each other. The most serious 
risk to which the harbor is exposed is that of being choked with 
Nile mud, deposited on the Pelusiac coast by a current in the Medi- 
terranean constantly flowing from the west. The western pier is in- 
tended to ward off these accumulations of sand and mud, and also 
to shelter the harbor from the northwest winds which prevail dui'ing 

211 



Present-Day Egypt 

Pasha to Ismailia, and Tewfik Pasha to Port Tew- 
fik, nothing in Egypt beyond a public square in 
Port Said bears the name of De Lesseps. The 
Suez company has erected a bronze statue at Port 
Said of the author of the canal, modeled by M. 
Fremiet; but as the appropriation for this was 
paltry, its importance cannot be deemed commen- 
surate with the achievement it is planned to com- 
memorate. At the opening of the canal everybody 
expected that some distinction would be conferred 
on De Lesseps, the general opinion being that he 
would be created Due de Suez ; and astonishment 
was felt at his being merely given the grand cordon 

two thirds of the year. Both piers were constructed of blocks of 
artificial stone, manufactured of seven parts of sand from the desert 
and one part of hydraulic lime imported from France. The concrete 
was mixed by machinery and poured into large wooden molds, in 
which it remained for several weeks. The molds were then re- 
moved, and the blocks exposed to the air to harden more thor- 
oughly. Each block weighed twenty tons, and thirty of them were 
manufactured daily. In all twenty-five thousand were required. 
Above the wooden molds, which covered an extensive piece of 
ground, was constructed a railway, bearing a steam-crane, which 
could be moved to any required spot, for the purpose of hoisting the 
blocks and conveying them to their destination. After having been 
hoisted by the crane, the blocks were transported to a boat, where 
they were placed on an inclined plane in twos and threes, and se- 
cured by means of wedges. They were then conveyed to the place 
where they were to be sunk, the wedges were removed, and the 
huge masses slid down the incline, splitting the wood and emit- 
ting sparks of fire on their way, and plunged into the water with a 
tremendous splash, while the boat staggered from the effects of the 
shock and was lashed by the waves thus artificially caused. These 
huge pierres perdues, as they were technically called, were thus 
gradually heaped up until they reached the surface, and the last 
layers, rising a little above the level of the water, were finally de- 
posited by means of a crane erected on a steamboat. 

21 2 



Story of the Suez Canal 

of the Legion of Honor. The omission was never 
fully explained. Some thought that, as he had no 
personal fortune, this stood in the way of his re- 
ceiving a French dukedom : provision for himself 
and his heirs would have been necessary. Others 
thought that the success of the canal was too 
doubtful for a high honor to be based on it. How- 
ever, in view of the disgrace that De Lesseps fell 
into over the Panama scheme, it is fortunate for 
the French nation that the dukedom was never 
given to him. If it can be said of any man that he 
lived too long, that surely can be said of Ferdinand 
de Lesseps. 

The canal destroyed Egypt's important railway 
traffic between Alexandria and Suez, besides 
bringing to the land that foreign domination fore- 
shadowed by the oracle consulted by the ancient 
Necho. Of the never-ending throng of humanity 
that passes through it, few, probably, think of, or 
know, the pathetic chapters of its history. It has 
revolutionized shipping methods, driven the stately 
sailing-ship from the ocean, and some years ago had 
developed as much traffic as can be expected to 
come to it under normal conditions. 

The canal's value to the commerce of the world 
is sufficiently proved by the saving of distance 
effected by it, as compared with the route around 
the Cape of Grood Hope. By the latter the dis- 
tance between England and Bombay is 10,860 miles, 
by the canal 4620 miles ; from St. Petersburg to 
Bombay by the Cape is 11,610 miles, by the canal 
6770 miles; and from New York to Bombay by 

213 



Present-Day Egypt 

the Cape route the distance is 11,520 miles, while 
by the canal it is 7920 miles. How rapidly the 
traffic attracted by the economy of distance thus 
effected has developed, is illustrated by the follow- 
ing statement, taken quinquennially from the com- 
pany's returns: 

Year. Steamers. Net Tonnage. Receipts in Francs. 



1871 


765 


761,467 


7,595,385 


1876 


1,457 


2,096,771 


27,631,455 


1881 


2,727 


4,136,779 


47,193,880 


1886 


3,100 


5,767,655 


54,771,075 


1891 


4,206 


8,699,020 


83,421,500 


1896 


3,407 


8,594,307 


79,652,175 


1901 


3,699 


10,823,840 


100,386,397 



A dozen years ago three quarters of the vessels 
passing the Suez Canal flew the British flag; but 
in recent years there has been a slight falling off 
in the number of English ships, the result chiefly 
of the determined effort Germany is making to 
secure new markets in the East. But the British 
flag represents still two thirds of the total traffic. 
Next to England, Germany is the principal user of 
the canal ; the Dutch flag comes third, while the 
tricolor of France is fourth in the list. Not for 
many years have the Stars and Stripes of our coun- 
try been seen in the canal over a commercial vessel. 
A couple of warships, six or eight transports, and 
two or three yachts usually comprise the annual 
volume of American representation. This is a sad 
commentary on the decline of our mercantile fleet, 
and demonstrates in no equivocal manner how com- 
pletely our flag has disappeared from the seas. The 
records of the United States consular agency at Port 
Said disclose the fact that about eighty American- 

214 




A SIMPLE FORM OF IRRIGATION. 



Story of the Suez Canal 

bound cargoes— sugar from Singapore and the 
Dutch, colonies, and tea from China and India — 
pass the canal each year ; but these, in nearly every 
instance, are borne in British bottoms. 

Our military operations in the Philippines gave 
an impulse to the canal receipts hitherto never en- 
joyed from this source by the company, and the 
United States government, in the closing months 
of 1898 and the first half of 1899, paid more in 
tolls for warships, transports, and men, going or 
coming from Manila, than it had hitherto paid the 
canal in twenty years. It is truly an ill wind 
that brings nothing to the Suez company. Every 
year or two its tribute upon commerce is substan- 
tially augmented by the presence of armed strife 
somewhere in Asia or Africa, in which Europe is 
taking a hand. The years when Italy was hope- 
lessly fighting the Abyssinians were among the 
most remunerative in the company's history. 

The economy in using the canal is in the saving 
of time only. The present toll is $1.90 on vessel 
tonnage, and $2 for every passenger, not counting 
the ship's crew. The toll on tonnage is equivalent 
to the cost of about three thousand miles of ocean 
transportation, it is estimated. Since electric lights 
for night steaming came into use, it requires from 
seventeen to twenty hours to make the passage 
of the canal. The cost for a large steamer, like 
a liner of the P. & 0., the Orient or British India 
companies, or a troop-ship filled with soldiers, is 
not infrequently ten thousand dollars. I first made 
the trip from Port Said to the Red Sea in the yacht 

217 



Present-Day Egypt 

Sagamore^ under the flag of the New York Yacht 
Club, and for this comparatively small craft the 
toll was four hundred dollars. 

The Suez company's capital— bonds and shares 
of every character— is practically one hundred mil- 
lion dollars; and the length of the canal is just 
under a hundred miles. In average years the gross 
revenue is about 16 per cent, on the capitalization, 
and the net earnings about 7.6 per cent. These 
figures indicate a remarkable prosperity, and ex- 
plain the popularity in which the securities are 
held by Frenchmen and other investors. I recall 
an interesting conversation with a clever American 
engineer, two or three years ago, who assured me 
that by employing the hydraulic excavating ma- 
chinery of the present day he could make a canal 
from the Mediterranean to Suez, as wide and deep 
as the existing canal, for twenty million dollars ; 
and he regretted that international agreements and 
vested rights rendered it impossible to "parallel" 
the Suez waterway. The machinery with which his 
name was associated had done wonders in making 
the Chicago drainage-canal, and his estimate of 
the cost of dealing with the sands of the Egyptian 
isthmus seemed reasonable. 

It is too early for speculation as to the rever- 
sionary value of the Suez Canal. Many persons, 
knowing how Egypt is mulcted in most matters, 
claim that it will never be turned over to the Egyp- 
tian government, predicting that in time it will be 
thrown open to the world, and supported by a 
nominal tax on vessels using it, after the manner 

218 



Story of the Suez Canal 

in which lighthouses are maintained. Of course 
this is conjecture, pure and simple. Many things 
can happen in the space of sixty-five years, and 
before 1968 conditions may prevail that no one 
now foresees. The Suez Canal will doubtless be as 
useful then as now, but the term " Egyptian gov- 
ernment " may have a meaning foreign to that ex- 
pressed by the words of the concession under which 
the canal was made. There is little prospect that 
this most important artery of marine travel will 
ever bring substantial benefit to the Egyptian 
people. Yielding an income in these times of six- 
teen million dollars a year, the Egyptians would be 
receiving two million four hundred thousand dol- 
lars annually from the stipulation of the concession 
giving them fifteen per cent, of the gross revenue, 
had not Ismail thrown away their rights in his 
mad craving for money. 

When United States capital and skill join the 
Atlantic with the Pacific, the canal will in many 
respects be the antithesis of the Suez waterway, 
notably because there will be no chapter of sharp 
practice antecedent to its creation, and, further, 
because the state enjoying sovereignty over the 
route employed will have in our government a re- 
sponsible lessee. Our isthmian canal may not 
prove a money-making venture, but is bound in- 
directly to secure to the United States immeasur- 
able benefits. It will be a lasting monument to the 
straightforward diplomacy of Secretary of State 
Hay, equitable and firm throughout his negotia- 
tions. 

219 



CHAPTER VII 

ISMAIL PASHA AS KHEDIVE AND EXILE 

BUT for two great errors of judgment, Ismail 
might have ended his days in Cairo, as Egypt's 
khedive, instead of in Constantinople, an exile. 
The first and greater of these mistakes was the 
exaggerated estimate formed of the resources of 
Egypt. Coming to power at a time when the 
prices of agricultural produce, and especially of cot- 
ton, were unduly inflated by the Civil War in the 
United States, he sprang to the conclusion that he 
could indefinitely draw a vast tribute from the Nile 
land. He claimed proprietorship of twenty per 
cent, of the cultivable acreage of the country, and 
what was not his belonged to his subjects. These 
beings, he argued, were his indisputably, soul, body, 
and all that belonged to them. By this process of 
reasoning the doughty pasha felt that "Ismail" 
and " Egypt " were synonymous words. 

His second error was that of exciting the jeal- 
ousy and ill will of the Sultan, his political master. 
Had Ismail been properly advised, neither of these 
mistakes would have been made, and his history 
would not be so fraught with pathetic contrasts. 
But half-way measures were unknown to him. His 

220 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

generosities were as magnificent as his vices, and 
he consulted neither law nor reason in discharging 
his khedival prerogative, for he was a law unto 
himself. 

When General Sherman informed him that 
American military men could give Egypt a capable 
army, he brought thirty or forty of these specialists 
to the country and paid them lavishly, instead of 
fifteen or twenty as advised by the great general. 
When Ismail sent a wedding-gift of a handful of 
diamonds to General Sherman's daughter, later on, 
the value of the dazzling jewels was found to be so 
great that the limited Sherman fortune was men- 
aced by the New York customs collector. Asked 
to present an obelisk to New York's Central Park, 
Ismail promptly authorized the removal from 
Egypt of the monolith of red syenite granite that 
Julius Caesar had brought from Heliopolis to 
adorn the approach to the CsBsarean temple in 
Alexandria, forgetful of the fact that it was covered 
with hieroglyphs of the reigns of Thothmes III, 
Rameses the Great, and Seti II, that it antedated 
the Christian era fully twelve centuries, and was 
for other reasons an object of priceless value to 
students of Egyptology. But there was nothing 
petty about Ismail, and when he admired a nation 
as he did the American, he would have given away 
a pyramid with as little concern as he would a 
blooded horse from his stable. 

Ismail was born in Cairo on the last day of the 
year 1830, and died on March 2, 1895. His father 
was the warrior son of Mehemet Ali, Ibrahim 

221 



Present-Day Egypt 

Pasha, from whom he inherited that reckless cour- 
age so discernible in every important action of his 
life. Caution and prudence were altogether over- 
shadowed by the daredevil quality descending 
from men knowing only the law of the sword. 
He came to the viceroyship on January 18, 1863, 
inheriting from Said, his uncle, the damnosa here- 
ditas of the Suez Canal. Ismail found himself 
pledged to the undertaking of his predecessor, and 
the excuse for the vast debt which accumulated 
during his reign may partially be found in these 
obligations. 

Prince Ismail was sent to Paris in 1843 to receive 
a French education, and was authorized to attend 
the classes at the Polytechnique. He spent every 
Thursday evening at the Tuileries, and generally 
dined with the royal family on Sundays. He had 
been nearly seven years in the French capital when, 
in 1849, his education was thought to be completed, 
and he was recalled to Egypt. His sojourn in 
Paris was coincident with the ferment into which 
the railway movement, by exciting greed to the 
utmost, had thrown all France. This was one of 
the underlying causes of the revolution of 1848, 
which Ismail witnessed, and the young Egyptian 
went home with his head filled with ideas derived 
from Louis Philippe and his courtiers. 

Being learned in mathematics and all the sci- 
ences that could be acquired in a few years, Ismail 
thought he was better qualified to reign in Egypt 
than his uncles, Said and Abbas— both younger sons 
of Mehemet Ali. The youthful Comte de Paris, 

222 




OBELIfcsK AT HELIOPOLIS. 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

figui'ing as prince royal and taking precedence of 
his uncles, was an object-lesson over which young 
Ismail pondered, for he was full of the idea of sub- 
stituting the European order of succession for the 
Mohammedan. Yet he was not the eldest son of 
Ibrahim Pasha, for Achmet was the first-born. 

Ismail had not been at home long before he con- 
ceived a fondness for Nubar, a crafty and accom- 
plished Armenian, who had lived on the viceroyal 
family from the hour that he was appointed reader 
to Mehemet Ali. At this time Nubar was director 
of the railways, and it will ever be suspected that 
he had much to do with the tragedy that placed 
Prince Ismail in line to succeed Viceroy Said. A 
special train was ordered to convey the princes 
and their suites from Cairo to Alexandria, where 
the viceroy was to give a great garden-party. 
Strangely enough, Ismail excused himself at the 
last moment from going, on a plea of sudden ill- 
ness, the story is told, while, by odd coincidence, 
Nubar, whose duty it was, as head of the railway 
administration, to accompany the princely party, 
pretended, just as the train was about to steam out 
of the station, a similar indisposition, which forced 
him to remain in Cairo. The train, in addition to 
carrying the heir apparent, also conveyed his uncle. 
Prince Halim. It proceeded safely on its way until 
reaching Kafr-Zayat, a point about half-way between 
the two cities, where the road passes over a draw- 
bridge spanning one of the arms of the Nile. As 
the train bearing its precious freight rushed around 
the curve leading to the bridge, the engineer saw 

11 225 



Present-Day Egypt 

to his horror that the draw was open, leaving a 
yawning space over the muddy and eddying waters 
forty feet below. It was too late to avoid the ca- 
tastrophe, and the whole train was hurled into the 
river. Halim Pasha, a splendid swimmer, managed 
to extricate himself from the wreck and get ashore ; 
but Achmet was drowned in his compartment, thus 
leaving the succession to the throne of Egypt clear 
for his younger brother. Nubar found himself 
disgraced temporarily, and with circumstantial 
evidence pointing to him as a murderer, he found 
it prudent, the tale runs, to betake himself to 
Europe. As soon as Ismail ascended the throne, 
he summoned Nubar Pasha to his side, and named 
him prime minister, besides bestowing magnificent 
presents of land and money upon the friend who, 
so Cairo gossips say, had served him well. 

Another instance of Ismail's disregard even for 
human life, when seeking to attain an important 
object, was furnished by the taking off of his 
quondam favorite known as the " Moufettish." 
This functionary, holding the purse-strings of 
Ismail's government, was living in a splendor at 
times eclipsing that of the khedive himself, and to 
do this was plundering the people and the official 
cash-box with a recklessness that promised to has- 
ten the impending national bankruptcy. Whether 
this man was more the dme damnee or the pernicious 
counselor of his master is a point never fully settled. 
In all probability he acted in both capacities, for 
which his duplicity and cunning qualified him. 
Ismail, having made certain that the Moufettish 

226 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

was robbing him, invited him to Ghizereh Palace to 
discuss affairs of state. The man went, as he had 
done scores of times before, but was never seen 
again. A small government steamer started that 
night for Upper Egypt, a brief notice was published 
to the effect that the Mouf ettish had been sent on an 
important mission to the southern provinces, and 
that was all. The opinion was that the minions of 
the khedive strangled him as soon as he passed the 
portals of the palace, and that his corpse was car- 
ried to the bottom of the Nile so carefully weighted 
that the evidence of the crime would be concealed 
for all time. The palaces of the dishonest minister 
of finance were confiscated, and his harem of four 
hundred women was broken up, most of the beau- 
ties being sent back to Europe. The tale of the 
Moufettish ceased years ago to interest Cairenes, 
and is now resurrected only when some one wishes 
to show the summary method Ismail Pasha chose 
to employ in dealing with an official who had be- 
trayed his trust, as had Saddik Pasha. 

When Ismail came into power, he found his peo- 
ple living in the middle ages of orientalism, but 
practically free from debt. Every pound of cotton 
that his country could send to England brought a 
dollar ; and this condition spurred Ismail at once to 
set to work to develop every resource of the Delta 
and valley of the Nile,— to bring Egypt abreast of 
the Western countries that he had visited,— with a 
lordly disregard of cost. Railroads were built, and 
bridges and docks constructed; sugar-factories 
sprang up along the Nile like mushrooms, and be- 

227 



Present-Day Egypt 

fore cane-cultivation had practically begun; new 
sections of Cairo were laid out and the land donated 
to those promising to erect houses ; the harbor of 
Alexandria was deepened and enlarged ; elaborate 
schemes for irrigation were organized ; and, in fact, 
everything appropriate and inappropriate was done 
to transform Egypt into a part of Europe, as far 
as enlightenment and prosperity were concerned. 
Money was borrowed and spent blindly. Much 
of it stuck to greedy and dishonest hands, and 
Ismail's reign may be said to have been the golden 
age for the most clever and unscrupulous adven- 
turers from every part of the world.^ 

At length came the inevitable day of reckoning. 
Egypt was no longer able to pay the interest on 
the enormous foreign debt of five hundred million 
dollars that had been piled up in the space of a few 
years. When the khedive made known the fact 
that the interest coupons on the debt could no 
longer be paid in their entirety, the governments 
of Germany, England, and France stepped in, on 
behalf of their subjects who had invested their sav- 
ings in Egyptian state bonds. They protested that 

1 " Generous and open-handed, Ismail's mania was giving ; his great 
fault, never to think of the liabilities incurred. In accepting the 
financial aid of the Continent, he did not discern the political conse- 
quences, nor the jealous intrigues which were to turn his monetary 
difficulties into a source of international meddling and encroachment. 
Blindfolded, he allowed himself to fall into the hands of the money- 
lenders ; from high to low, all Continental usurers threw themselves 
upon Egypt as an easy prey. So long as he had securities to offer, 
the anterooms of his ministers were overcrowded with bankers anx- 
ious to lend him millions at a percentage prohibited by the penal laws 
of their own country. . . . Cringing as long as they could hope to get 

228 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

Egypt was solvent, whereupon Ismail invited tliem 
to appoint a commission to investigate the financial 
condition of his country. This commission proved 
his ruin ; for, while it acknowledged that the coun- 
try was unable to pay the rate of interest until then 
demanded, and reduced it from seven to four per 
cent., it likewise declared that the economic crisis 
was due wholly to the extravagance of Ismail. 

To prove his good will and patriotism, the khe- 
dive surrendered private estates and plantations to 
the value of twenty-five million dollars ; but this 
was not all that the foreign governments and bond- 
holders demanded. They insisted on further sac- 
rifices, not only of a financial but also of a political 
character, to which the khedive could not agree; 
whereupon they invited the aid of the Sultan, who 
had always resented the spirit of independence 
displayed by his powerful vassal, and obtained a 
firman deposing Ismail, and placing on the throne 
his eldest son. Prince Tewfik. This was in the clos- 
ing days of June, in 1879 ; and within a week of 
his degradation Ismail left Egypt for Naples. 

To the last, Ismail seemed unconscious of having 

something out of Mm, they continued to push him to take their gold, 
and to mortgage Egypt, to pawn his state and his private properties 
up to their utmost value, renewing greedily his bonds until they 
foimd it more advantageous to liquidate his estate. Had his been 
the case of an ordinary mortal, a court of law would have reduced 
the outrageous claims to fair and just proportions. But he was a 
sovereign, and his creditors were the kings of Jews, or rather the 
Jews of kings, and powerful enough to bring to bear the authority of 
their respective governments to enforce their claims by every means 
available."— Baron de Malortie, in "Native Rulers and Foreign In- 
terference." 

231 



Present-Day Egypt 

committed wasteful extravagance, and only a few 
hours before Ms final departure from Cairo pleaded 
guilty to but one piece of lavish expenditure— that 
of the colossal sum devoted to the Suez Canal fetes. 
Ismail did not leave his country empty-handed. 
Though he had hoped to remain in power, yet he 
was prepared for an adverse decision at Constan- 
tinople before the receipt of the fateful telegram. 
He caused portable articles of value in his many 
palaces— and they were veritable treasure-houses— 
to be prepared for shipment, and it was estimated 
that these belongings were worth millions of dol- 
lars. The women of the harem were compelled to 
hand over their jewelry, and thus he obtained a 
quantity of property easily convertible into cash. 
Seventy of the harem women were selected to 
accompany the exile. Those to be left behind did 
not relish the situation, and they are said to have 
shown their displeasure by smashing mirrors and 
articles of a fragile nature, as only a thousand an- 
gry women could. Ismail's reign had been an orgy 
of despotic plunder, so to speak, and when he had 
no throne to sit upon, or palaces to occupy as mas- 
ter, he appropriated and carried off as much of the 
khedival property as the time and facilities at his 
command permitted. A long baggage-train was 
packed with pictures and cabinets, dinner-services 
and rare carpets, bronzes and silver candelabra, 
and plate of solid gold, much of it inlaid with 
jewels. At Alexandria everything was hurried on 
board the yacht Mahroussa, a steamer as big as an 
Atlantic liner. Ismail followed in a special train, 

232 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

witli two of his sons, a small suite of attendants, 
and the chosen ladies of the harem. As soon as the 
passengers were on board, the yacht started for 
Italy. 

At Naples the ex-khedive occupied a royal palace 
and maintained a pretentious court. He made fre- 
quent excursions to Paris, where his fat, dumpy 
figure and intelligent face, surmounted by an un- 
usually large tarboosh, were familiar to habitues of 
the boulevards ; for Ismail was very fond of sitting 
for hours at a time at one of the little tables in 
front of the Cafe de la Paix, sipping coffee and 
watching the passing throng. Tortoni's was an- 
other of his haunts ; and there, too, he would sip 
his coffee by the hour, musing, perhaps, on the 
proud empire that had passed away, and which, in 
its fall, had crushed his friend Napoleon III, driv- 
ing him likewise to an exile from which he could 
never return. 

The wanderer grew in time to dislike Naples; 
the neighborhood of Vesuvius affected the nerves 
of the ladies of his household, and all wanted to go 
elsewhere. His pleading with the Sultan for per- 
mission to visit Constantinople was finally favored, 
and he was later " induced " to establish himself in 
a pretty palace on the European side of the Bos- 
porus, where he might the better be watched by 
the Sultan and, possibly, the British government. 
As he was a vain man, he suffered greatly from 
being deposed, and for years was hopeful that he 
might be permitted to return to the khedivate. But 
when he realized at Constantinople that he was a 

233 



Present-Day Egypt 

prisoner in a gilded cage he surrendered himself to 
the situation and made the best of it. 

A few years after his deposition, Ismail pre- 
sented to the Egyptian government a claim for 
twenty-five million dollars, alleged to be the value 
of personal property he had been deprived of by 
his expulsion from the country, and more than half 
this amount was secured for him through the 
efforts of his counsel. Sir William Marriott. 

Like most imaginative persons, Ismail possessed 
a keen sense of humor, which disappointments and 
troubles did not altogether smother. It is related 
that when in the midst of the depression following 
the French emperor's surprising award over the 
canal matter, a certain European was having an 
audience with him at Abdin Palace, to discuss some- 
thing connected with the khedive's financial opera- 
tions; although the temperature was ideal, with 
not a breath of wind stirring, Ismail was observed 
to rise from his divan in the midst of the conference 
and close a window behind the caller. "Monsei- 
gneur, why did you do that 1 " asked a friend who 
had witnessed the incident. " Because," answered 
the khedive, " if that sharper could allege that he 
had sat in a draft and caught cold in my palace, it 
would take at least a quarter of a million francs 
to meet the demand that he would make for satis- 
faction. I am beginning to understand these Euro- 
pean business gentlemen," he added sadly. 

In examining the correspondence files in the 
American diplomatic agency in Cairo, I came upon 
a record that served as a vivid illustration of 

234 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

Ismail's love for doing things that would attract 
notice and make talk. It was a document relating 
how one of my predecessors, twenty or twenty- 
five years before, having business at Ras-el-Teen 
Palace in Alexandria, was invited to defer his re- 
turn to the capital, and dine that night with the 
khedive. The American representative stated that 
he was unprepared, having brought no evening 
dress. " That will be all right," exclaimed his 
Highness. "At seven o'clock you will find your 
clothes at your hotel." A telegram was despatched 
from the palace to Cairo, and a special messenger, 
traveling by special train, brought the desired rai- 
ment. It cost somebody— probably the Egyptian 
taxpayer— a considerable sum for running the train 
a hundred and thirty miles, and was wholly unne- 
cessary, for the resources of Alexandria could have 
produced a dozen suits of evening garments in no 
time. But that was Ismail's way of doing things. 
In Ismail's character there was little that could 
be commended, yet one could not wholly withhold 
admiration for his grandeur of thought and intre- 
pidity of action. He was a ruler of magnificent 
but inchoate ideas, in which he often got bewil- 
dered; and he invariably embarked in enterprises 
without thinking of the cost. To deal adequately 
with a character so regal, egotistic, masterful, and 
subtle, to extenuate nothing, and at the same time 
set nothing down in malice, is a task not easily 
performed. He certainly left his impress on his- 
tory, and had he not lived it is doubtful if Cairo 
would to-day be half as acceptable to its winter 

237 



Present- Day Egypt 

sojourners. There might be no opera, no boule- 
vards, no Ghizereh drive, and no real comfort. 
What he did for the city might be compared to 
what " Boss " Shepard did for Washington, " Boss " 
Tweed for New York, and Napoleon III and Hauss- 
mann for Paris. In his brief rule of sixteen years 
Ismail incurred for his people a debt of more than 
four hundred and fifty million dollars — a greater 
obligation than any other person that ever lived has 
succeeded in creating; but to accomplish this he 
mortgaged the souls of generations of Egyptians 
yet unborn. 

Half the royalties of Europe helped Ismail to 
spend twenty-one million dollars in celebrating in 
Cairo the opening of the Suez Canal. The opera 
of "Aida" was composed to his order, and pro- 
duced as an incident to the entertainment of the 
Empress Eugenie and other guests. When it was 
discovered that there was no suitable building in 
the capital for the opera's production, the khedive 
ordered the present opera-house to be erected. 
Workmen toiling day and night accomplished this 
in a few weeks. " Aida " had a cast composed of 
the greatest singers of the period, the Egyptian 
Museum was ransacked for jewels and " properties " 
to be employed in its production, and so delighted 
was the Egyptian ruler with the work of the com- 
poser that Verdi was handed a purse of thirty 
thousand dollars after the opera's first presenta- 
tion. Mariette Bey, the savant in Egyptology, 
occupied himself with the reconstitution of the era 
of the Pharaohs, and it is to his skill and learning 

238 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

that opera-goers owe their enjoyment of the marvel- 
ous picture of the temple of Ptah in the second act. 
Perhaps no opera was ever put on the stage in such 
elaborate fashion or with such scrupulous regard 
for archaeological accuracy. Planned to stand but 
a few months, the theater has since been the home 
of opera in Cairo, and Verdi's masterpiece is given 
therein several times every winter. The com- 
poser's original manuscript of " Aida " is among the 
treasured archives of the opera-house. 

It was Ismail's dream to make an Oriental Paris 
of Cairo. The French metropolis, he argued, could 
be reproduced : it was simply a question of finance. 
A goodly portion of the money borrowed by the 
khedive was spent at Grizeh, nearly opposite the 
spot where tradition says Moses was found in the 
bulrushes. Half a dozen lath-and-plaster struc- 
tures, with walls painted in a style suggesting 
solidity, went up there, with accompanying gardens 
like the Tuileries ranging from the Nile nearly to 
the Libyan desert. One of Ismail's ruling passions 
was for building palaces, and another found expres- 
sion in the way he surrounded himself with every- 
thing deemed fitting to the court of a mighty per- 
sonage — a king among kings. 

To this day, hidden away in Cairo cellars, are 
miles of iron fencing made to his order in Europe, 
a conspicuous feature of whose ornamentation is 
the royal cipher " I. R.," surmounted by a monarch's 
crown. This was to inclose palace domains, and 
the design had been agreed upon in anticipation of 
the successful outcome of negotiations pending at 

239 



Present-Day Egypt 

Constantinople for absolute independence. So cer- 
tain was Ismail Pasha of positive rulership, perhaps 
deceived by the wily Nubar, who was concerned in 
the negotiations, that it is related that a banquet 
was given to a group of favorite functionaries in 
celebration of the news that he believed was forth- 
coming from the Sublime Porte — that the Sultan 
had at last consented to give him full sovereignty 
of the Nile country. The dinner was Lucullian in 
character, each dish a gastronomic triumph, and 
the program called for a surpris at the end of 
the feast. "What it was to be, only the khedive and 
his chef knew. Clothed in immaculate white satin, 
the chef, wielding an enormous wooden knife, lifted 
the crust of a huge pie placed in the middle of the 
festal board, and out stepped a sprite in pink flesh- 
ings, dainty of face and form. With simulated be- 
wilderment, she scanned for a moment the faces of 
those at table, and, her choice decided upon, she 
stepped over dishes and decorations to the head of 
the table, and placed a kingly crown upon the brow 
of Ismail. 

But an edict of another sort issued from Con- 
stantinople, and a few weeks after the historical 
feast Ismail was sent away from Egypt, never again 
to see his beloved capital. When dying, he pleaded 
to be taken back to Egypt; but not until he was 
dead was the consent of the Sultan and the powers 
granted. 

A specially chartered steamship brought the 
body of Ismail, accompanied by Princes Hussein 
and Fouad,his sons, from Constantinople to Alexan- 

240 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

dria. The obsequies in Cairo (March 12, 1895) were 
marked by all possible pomp and circumstance. 
Funeral pageants and the stately etiquette of Euro- 
pean court mourning are entirely foreign to the 
spirit of Islam ; but the Egyptian capital has long 
been accustomed to compromises, which are la- 
mented only by the strictest Mohammedans. 

At an early hour in the forenoon the funeral 
procession, which must have numbered ten thou- 
sand people, began to muster near the new railway- 
station, in one of the private rooms of which the 
coffin had rested through the night, watched over 
by old retainers of the dead pasha. Egyptian and 
British troops lined the sides of the streets from the 
station, past Shepheard's and the opera-house, up the 
Boulevard Mehemet Ali, to the Rafai mosque under 
the citadel. Along the whole route, a distance of 
three miles, the pavement, windows, balconies, and 
housetops were thronged with spectators, blending 
the bright colors of the East with the more som- 
ber raiment of the West. But, save for a few flags 
draped with crape, and the shrill lamentations here 
and there of native women, it was difficult to real- 
ize that this chattering, laughing, indifferent crowd 
was gathered together to witness a pageant of 
death. 

The procession itself, which defiled for almost an 
hour in one unbroken column, presented the same 
strange contrasts, the same curious jumble of 
Eastern and Western life. Its very composition 
reflected all the anomalies of modern Egypt. Be- 
hind detachments of mounted police and Egyptian 

243 



Present-Day Egypt 

cavalry came Major-General Sir Herbert Kitchener, 
the sirdar of the Egyptian army, with his staff- 
unmistakably English in spite of their Egyptian 
uniforms. Immediately behind them walked read- 
ers of the Koran, reciting the sacred verses in a 
high nasal chant; deputations from the native 
guilds and corporations, bearing flags and banners 
with embroidered religious devices ; descendants of 
the prophet, in green turbans and flowing robes; 
moUas and ulema, in long caftans ; dervishes, in tall 
felt hats ; students from El-Azhar— in fact, the mili- 
tant and uncompromising Islam in all its old-world 
picturesqueness. Then, in sharp contrast to the 
medieval scholasticism of the great Mussulman 
university, came hundreds of black-coated boys 
and youths from the modern schools and colleges, 
with their European teachers. Behind them again, 
in curious alternation, walked native and European 
notables : judges from the native and international 
courts ; gold-laced pashas and beys ; British officials, 
in the Stambouline coat, indicating their Egyptian 
employment ; the six European commissioners of the 
public debt ; long-robed clergy of the different de- 
nominations, and rabbis of the Jewish community; 
and red-coated officers of the British army of oc- 
cupation, led by Greneral Sir Frederick Forestier 
"Walker. 

Behind this medley of humanity walked the diplo- 
matic corps, headed by the doyen of the body, Lord 
Cromer. Save the United States diplomatic agent 
and his secretary, all were in the spectacular uni- 
forms prescribed by their governments, gold lace, 

244 



Ismail as Khedive and Exile 

feathers, and orders of chivalry making them doubly 
conspicuous. It seemed to me that the black ci- 
vilian garb of a diplomatic official of the great re- 
public harmonized with the ceremonial better than 
the gorgeous costumes of the representatives of 
divine-right rulers. Had a United States congress- 
man seen the procession from Shepheard's terrace, 
I am certain he would have returned to the halls 
of legislation a lifelong opponent of the movement 
to dress our foreign representatives in tinseled 
coats and cocked hats. 

Next to the diplomatic and consular body came 
the khedival ministers, and the English advisers 
for finance, justice, and the interior; and then 
came Khedive Abbas, walking with Grhazi Moukh- 
tar Pasha, the Ottoman high commissioner (the 
hero of Kars), at his side. Following his Highness 
were fully thirty princes of the khedival family. 
Behind these mourners and the household of the 
deceased ex-khedive, a double row of youths sprin- 
kled perfumes and burned incense in front of the 
coffin. Covered with an embroidered pall, on 
which were displayed the uniform and decorations 
of the deceased, the mortal remains of Ismail were 
borne on the shoulders of twenty troopers from the 
khedival body-guard, hard pressed by a weird 
crowd of female mourners, rending the air with 
their shrieks of woe. Another body of troops, with 
arms reversed, closed the strange pageant. 

The ladies and women attendants of the ex-khe- 
dive's harem, to the number of some eight hundred, 
had expressed their intention of following bare- 

245 



Present-Day Egypt 

footed the remains of their former lord and master ; 
but orders from Abdin Palace ultimately forbade 
so public a manifestation of their grief. For fully 
a week before the funeral there had been a nightly 
" wake " at Kasr el- Ali Palace by these women. 

When abreast of the heroic statue of Ibrahim 
Pasha, Ismail's father, in the opera square, Khedive 
Abbas left the cortege, and was taken to Abdin by 
carriage. The diplomatic body and many of the 
Europeans left the procession at the same time, 
while the thousands wended their way slowly to the 
mosque of Sultan Hassan, where the usual prayers 
were recited, and then to the mosque of Rafai, 
opposite. There, beside the tombs of his mother and 
two of his daughters, Ismail was finally laid to rest 
in the mausoleum which he had designed for him- 
self, but which will probably never be completed. 
The foundations of the huge pile are already show- 
ing signs of subsidence — a monument perhaps not 
altogether inappropriate to the man whose life, 
after a brief period of artificial splendor, ebbed 
drearily away amid the ruins of his shattered am- 
bitions. Ismail had planned to have the new Rafai 
mosque eclipse in beauty and vastness the Sultan 
Hassan mosque, long regarded as the most perfect 
example of architecture in the Mussulman world; 
but his financial disaster interrupted the work when 
only the outer walls and roof had been completed. 



246 



CHAPTER VIII 

TEWFIK PASHA AND THE ARABI REBELLION 

FEW events in modern history are more pa- 
thetically dramatic than the substitution of 
Tewfik for Ismail. The Turkish grand vizir des- 
patched two telegrams to Cairo on June 26, 1879. 
One was to " Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt " ; 
the other to Mohammed Tewfik, his son. In the 
former it was stated that his Imperial Majesty the 
Sultan, as the result of a decision of his council of 
ministers, had formally decided to request Ismail's 
retirement from the khedivate, in favor of the next 
in succession, his Highness Tewfik Pasha, and that 
the irade to this effect had been issued. While 
Ismail was reading this decree at Abdin Palace, 
the son was reading the other message at his coun- 
try-seat a few miles out of Cairo, to the effect that 
"his Imperial Majesty the Sultan has named you 
by imperial irade Khedive of Egypt, and the fir- 
man will be delivered to you with the customary 
ceremonial. Convoke the ulema and functiona- 
ries, the chief men of the country, and the gov- 
ernment employees, and communicate to them, 
the stipulations of the decree relative to your suc- 
cession, and at once relieve his Highness Ismail 

12 247 



Present-Day Egypt 



Pasha from the direction of the affairs of the 
government." 

It was a matter of great importance to be ar- 
ranged by telegraph, this change of rulership in 
almost independent Egypt; but thus it was done. 
The Sultan's aversion to the mysterious electric 
current is known to exclude the telephone, the 
electric light, and even the trolley-car from Con- 
stantinople ; but in matters of state, when urgent, 
his Majesty is a liberal enough user of telegraph 
and cable. 

In Eastern countries it is a coveted privilege to 
convey good news to any one. I have the story of 
the telegrams from a distinguished journalist who 
was behind the scenes in the abdication affair. He 
describes, with some license, perhaps, the conster- 
nation at Abdin when the message was delivered 
with the words " ex-khedive " so boldly penned on 
the envelop that there could be no mistaking the 
purport of the inclosure. The grand master of 
ceremonies would as soon have fondled a viper; 
and one and all of his assistants thought of press- 
ing matters demanding their presence in other 
parts of the palace. The keeper of the seals said 
emphatically that the delivering of telegrams was 
no part of his duty ; and the officer of the khedival 
guard could not be cajoled into doing this errand. 
Everybody agreed that a message to his Highness 
at this particular time must be a matter of state, 
and no one of less rank than a minister could ap- 
propriately have anything to do with it. 

At this moment bluff old Cherif Pasha, peren- 
248 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

nially minister of this or that, strode into the pal- 
ace. With some reluctance he consented to take 
the fateful telegram up-stairs to the khedive. 
Ismail's face changed a little as he read it. " Send 
at once for his Highness Tewfik Pasha," was all he 
said. Then he folded the message and laid it on 
the table by his side. A moment later he handed 
the bit of paper to Cherif to read, saying as he did 
so : "I can't go to the investiture ; I do not think 
that can be expected of me. But I shall be the 
first to salute the new khedive of Egypt, and wish 
for him a more successful reign than his father has 
had." Then, drawing the table nearer, he said to 
Cherif Pasha : " Now we will have a game of back- 
gammon." 

Tewfik's message was hurried full tilt from the 
telegraph office, the messenger making a record for 
speed, wondering as he ran if he would be made a 
pasha or a bey. 

True to the habit of punctilious politeness ac- 
quired in France, Ismail determined to maintain 
his savoir-faire in the hour of adversity. He 
quickly cabled to Constantinople that he submitted 
to the will of his sovereign Sultan ; and, Tewfik 
Pasha arriving at the palace shortly after, Ismail 
is said to have greeted him with the words, "I 
salute my effendina," bowing low to his successor 
and covering his hands with the kisses of sub- 
mission. 

Tewfik's account of what passed immediately fol- 
lowing the greeting in their altered stations is told 
by Alfred J. Butler, an English tutor in the Tewfik 

249 



Present-Day Egypt 

household, in his volume of reminiscences of court 
life in Egypt. " When I came to the throne," Tew- 
fik is reported to have said, " I received the news 
without joy. Sympathy with my father's fall, and 
the great sense of responsibility, left me no room 
for rejoicing. After my father's courtly salutation, 
acknowledging me as his effendina, he heaped re- 
proaches upon me and accused me of having at last 
intrigued successfully. I then produced two letters 
from one of his former ministers, received when I 
was acting as regent, in his absence from the coun- 
try. These offered me the support of the army ; and 
if I consented to the minister's plot, it was proposed 
to destroy the khedival yacht when it returned to 
Alexandria, sending Ismail to the bottom of the 
harbor. My father read these letters, and was much 
moved. He then kissed me affectionately, saying, 
< Forgive me, my son, forgive me ! ' " 

Prince Tewfik was perhaps ten years of age when 
Ismail became viceroy. He was born in 1852, and 
his mother was an attendant slave in Ismail's harem. 
Her princely master acknowledged the child and 
added its mother to his list of lawful wives, com- 
pleting the quota of four allowed by his religion. 
Other sons were born to Ismail shortly after, but 
no amount of intriguing on the part of their 
mothers could alter the fact that the child brought 
into the world by the harem slave was their liege 
lord's first-born and heir. Ismail from the first 
could not conceal his dislike of Tewfik ; but he dis- 
liked even more his uncle, Halim. In applying 
liberal largess at Stamboul to procure a firman pro- 

250 




.Mclieiuct All Pasha. 
Abbas Paslia. 
Ismail Pasha. 



Jbrahiru I'aslia. 
.Said Pasha. 
Tewtik Pasha. 



PREDECESSORS OF KHEDIVE ABBAS II. 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

vidiiig for the kliedival succession from father to 
eldest son, he believed, doubtless, that he was pay- 
ing his money for the lesser of two evils; and, 
besides, fate might remove Prince Tewfik, the in- 
truder, permitting the son of his favorite wife to 
become heir apparent. 

While the other sons were sent to schools and 
colleges in England and France, Tewfik was kept 
at home, and little effort was made to give him 
more than the educational advantages that would 
fall to the son of any well-to-do Egyptian gentle- 
man. He once ventured abroad, traveling as far 
as Vienna ; but the breaking out of the Franco-Grer- 
man War caused him to return to Cairo, and shortly 
thereafter he found himself installed at Koubbeh, 
with a spouse so devoted and good that he was 
happy to lead the life of a country squire, and 
leave court intrigue and politics to those caring for 
them. His princess was the daughter of a man of 
position, descended from Mehemet Ali, and she 
possessed a mind and character of an order unusual 
in the East. 

Tewfik never availed himself of the Moslem right 
to give rivals to the Princess Emine in the way 
of other wives. He was an affectionate husband 
and a model landlord. He took a great interest in 
the cause of education, and established schools at 
his own expense, to which not only his own two sons 
were sent, but the sons of the gentry and oflSicials 
as well. The educating of children was his great- 
est hobby. 

Ismail had always played as recklessly with the 

253 



Present-Day Egypt 

tenets of the Koran as with other things, and de- 
lighted to jeer at the strictness with which Tewfik 
discharged his religious duties, telling him he should 
adopt European modes of thinking and living. 
" When you come to the throne, pretend to be a 
good Mussulman, like me ; it is good policy, and 
the people will like you for it," was the father's 
flippant advice. When Tewfik, on the day he took 
upon himself the responsibilities of the khedivate, 
went in state to the mosque and prayed with the 
faithful, Ismail is reported to have remarked : " You 
are acting the Moslem very well." The son replied : 
" Yes, sire ; but I am truly sincere." 

Tewfik came to the khedivate when it had been 
shorn of three fourths of its power ; and anxious as 
he was to use his prerogative for the best interests 
of his people, the new khedive found himself nearly 
as helpless as GruUiver bound hand, foot, and body 
by the Lilliputians. The influence forceful enough 
to remove Ismail had likewise been sufficiently po- 
tent to establish the dual control, by which England 
and France had taken possession of the finances. 
In no country in the world is everything more 
vitally dependent on the Finance Office than in 
Egypt. The ministry of finance is the mainspring 
of the executive machinery, the fountainhead of 
everything, without which nothing can be done. 
The ministry of public works devises schemes of 
irrigation certain to make the soil profitable to 
agriculture; but the Finance Office provides the 
money with which they may be carried into effect. 
Tewfik might complain, but he could not drive 

254 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

M. de Blignieres and Major Baring from the min- 
istry of finance ; nor could he procure from these 
controllers a single piaster for any purpose unless 
they agreed with him as to the expediency of the 
appropriation. Foreign intervention had not only 
removed the cash-box from the custody of the khe- 
dive, but commissions of liquidation and restrictive 
measures had completely changed the character of 
the khedival office in its transition from father to 
son. 

Hampered thus in the exercise of power, Tewfik 
made enemies without gaining friends. The ruler 
who distributes places and pensions has many eu- 
logists. Tewfik Pasha was ready to cooperate in 
doing away with extravagances and abuses; but 
the alien controllers— in effect the "receivers" of 
an establishment from which they wanted to ex- 
tract every penny possible for their principals, 
without destroying its future earning power- 
effected such sweeping economies that thousands 
of natives went hungry as a consequence of a stop- 
page of their supplies. A people unfamiliar with 
diplomatic methods of collecting overdue accounts 
knew little of the significance of the dual control, 
and cared less. Believing their khedive governed 
Egypt, they addressed to him their petitions for 
relief ; but he could give no relief, and discontent 
followed as a natural consequence. A glimmer of 
understanding in time coming to the people, the cry, 
" Down with the foreigners ! " rang from the Medi- 
terranean to the Sudan, and was echoed back with 
the added cry of " Egypt for the Egyptians ! " 

^55 



Present-Day Egypt 

Evidences of insubordination in the native army 
were brought to public notice daily, furnishing a 
theme of conversation in bazaar and palace. The 
soldiers had many grievances, the arrears of pay 
being the most important. Before Ismail had been 
driven away, the minister of finance had even been 
mobbed in the street by four hundred desperate 
officers, demanding the means to supply their 
families with food. On another occasion an army 
officer carried a dead child in his arms to the min- 
istry of finance, praying for enough of the money 
due him to provide decent burial for his little one. 
When the strain to find funds to pay European 
bondholders was greatest, the crops failed in Upper 
Egypt, and there was much suffering among the 
populace. 

Meanwhile the cry, " Egypt for the Egyptians ! " 
was coming to have more than a sentimental mean- 
ing. It was maturing into a menace, and one of 
such force that every intelligent person in Egypt 
must have recognized its possibilities. I confess 
that the position of the common people, if truth- 
fully described by impartial witnesses, reflected 
a cruel disregard of the principles of justice and 
humanity. I am certain my sympathies would 
have gone to the poor Egyptians, ground to star- 
vation that distant bondholders might continue to 
receive an exorbitant and usurious interest. 

No universal rule for redressing grievances can 
be laid down, but there was a right as well as a 
wrong way of attempting a rational solution of 
even so complicated a situation as that prevailing 

256 




TULIP COLUMNS AT K-VKXAK. 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

in Egypt in the early eighties. Arabi Pasha was 
the exponent of the wrong process. The logic of 
argument, reaching the proper ear, should be more 
potent in these days than ill-considered revolt. 
Rebellion is usually destructive in its results, and 
does not always appeal to the seat of true wisdom. 

Ahmed Arabi was constructed on lines too nar- 
row to make it possible for him ever to become a 
liberator. He lacked every mental attribute requi- 
site to successful leadership, perhaps explained by the 
fact that he was but a peasant, whose forefathers 
had never known an hour when they were free from 
the heel of the oppressor. Arabi talked superficial 
platitudes that pleased his kind, and their flattery 
convinced him that he was born for a great part in 
the world. He had risen from a common soldier 
to be a colonel, and had a fondness for intrigue. 
His flowery talk and employment of claptrap 
dramaticism had lifted him within a year from 
obscurity to notoriety, and wherever he went he 
excited the admiration of the common people. 

His propaganda of "Egypt for the Egyptians" 
was hourly exploited. People followed him in the 
streets singing his praises, and he was undeniably 
the man of the hour. It is related that, as he 
once walked along an important thoroughfare, in 
a manner indicating profound reflection, knowing 
he was followed by a hundred worshipers, he 
struck a dramatic attitude, and said, as if speaking 
to himself, " Here,"— placing his foot over a certain 
spot,—" buried here is the heaven-sent weapon that 
will free Egypt from the grasp of the infidels." A 

259 



Present-Day Egypt 

dozen eager hands clawed in the earth, and brought 
to light a Remington rifle, so bright and free from 
rust as to justify the suspicion that the crafty 
Arabi had deposited it there but a few hours before. 

Tewfik Pasha was a strange combination of cour- 
age and weakness. The latter was proved when 
the spirit of rebellion among his troops first took 
concrete shape. Arabi had led four thousand sol- 
diers to Abdin Square to demand from the khedive 
the dismissal of the Riaz ministry, against which 
great dissatisfaction had been fomented by Arabi 
and his brother conspirator, Mahmoud Sami. 
Three sides of the great square in front of Abdin 
Palace were filled with soldiery and the accompany- 
ing rabble, when the khedive, attended by Sir 
Auckland Colvin, an English official, went forth to 
meet the insolent Arabi. 

The leader rode across the square, sword in 
hand, to the point where the khedive stood, with 
his group of palace officials. Arabi was nervous, 
and the experienced eye could tell at a glance that 
he could be cowed as easily as a truant school- 
boy. " What shall I do ? " Tewfik asked of Colvin. 
" Tell him to dismount," was the reply. " Iniz il ! " 
commanded Tewfik. Without a word, and almost 
with undignified haste, the comic-opera hero was 
on the ground, but his sword was still drawn. The 
khedive pointed to it, and Arabi sheathed it 
promptly. But his hands trembled as he ran the 
blade into the scabbard, betraying the cowardly 
heart beating within his jacket. 

It was the moment for action. "Demand his 
260 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

sword," whispered Colvin to his Highness. Could 
Tewfik's lips have uttered these words in a manner 
carrying authority, the craven would have laid his 
weapon at the feet of his eifendina and kissed the 
skirt of his garment— and the Arabi rebellion would 
have been stifled while yet in innocent embryo, 
and a dark chapter in Egyptian history would have 
been avoided. But the khedive's tongue was as if 
paralyzed. A word to the troops, later, would have 
caused a reaffirmation of their loyalty; and, had 
their sovereign mounted Arabi's horse and led the 
regiments through the city, Arabi and the cause he 
was espousing would have been ridiculed out of 
existence. 

But Arabi saw that he had conquered in this con- 
flict with spineless Tewfik, and from that instant 
he was master of the situation and the apostle of 
a movement now grown to national proportions. 
Arabi had his way, and the khedive dismissed the 
ministry of Riaz Pasha. Not many months later 
Arabi was minister of war, and his better-informed 
ally, Mahmoud Sami, rose to be prime minister. 

To Mehemet Ali the incident would have been 
but a playful moment, and he would have pistoled 
the leader instantly. Ismail Pasha, even, would 
have dealt with it no less conclusively, but in a 
different way. But the father and great-grand- 
father of Khedive Tewfik were men of impulse and 
quick action. 

After his easy triumph at Abdin, the dreamy 
Arabi became a bustling bully, full of his own im- 
portance, and displaying more than usual igno- 

261 



Present-Day Egypt 

ranee. But to a man the army was with him, and 
fifty thousand peasant farmers along the Nile were 
ready to fight under his banner whenever he called 
for them. Tewfik did many things to placate Ara- 
bi, which did much to turn his head. At last the 
rebel leader forced the khedive to hide himself for 
safety in one of his palaces near Alexandria, while 
he became the dictator of the country, basing his 
authority upon his military prestige. He sent lying 
proclamations into the interior, and pretended to 
have divine revelations pointing to a crushing vic- 
tory over the Christian oppressors of the land. It 
was his boast that his guns could sink any fleet, 
whatever its strength ; and he assured his followers 
that a hundred thousand foreign soldiers, if they 
landed in Alexandria, would be hacked to pieces. 

The baselessness of Arabi's opinions was quickly 
proved, for the forts of Alexandria were able to 
make only feeble resistance to the modern ord- 
nance of Admiral Seymour's fleet, and were reduced 
to ruins in short order, with the principal quarter 
of the city as well. Arabi and his army retreated 
to the interior in the wildest disorder, and only 
once made anything like a determined stand against 
the pursuing British regiments. That was at Tel- 
el-Kebir, and was of brief duration. The poltroon 
Arabi a few hours later was glad of the personal 
safety attending his surrender to the English as a 
prisoner of war.^ 

1 "On September 13, 1882, the British army under Sir Garnet Wolse- 
ley stormed the earthworks of Tel-el-Kebir, and with one brilliant 
dash scattered to the winds the forces and the hopes of 'Ahmed 

262 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

But I find myself drifting into a needless de- 
scription of the rebellion, and the bombardment 
of the forts of Alexandria on July 11 and 12, 1882, 
with the wanton massacre of thousands of innocent 
people by the natives, maddened to frenzy by Arabi 
and his followers. It is a page of history too well 
known to be repeated, and has no place in these 
slight sketches. 

Mr. Moberly Bell, a fair-minded Enghsh writer on 
the subject of contemporary Egypt, in recording 
his opinions of the campaign as he saw it, says 
this of Arabi : " It may be admitted that the whole 
country sided with Arabi up to the day of Tel-el- 
Kebir, but the significance of this fact is apparent 
when we remember that the whole country was 
against him the day afterward. Again, the gen- 
eral promise held out to millions of fellaheen that 
all debts due to Europeans should be canceled 
would have enabled the devil himself to have made 
converts. In Egypt, the man who succeeds is al- 
ways popular; the man who has power leads the 
nation. Arabi got power, not by his ability, but 

Arabi, the Egyptian.' Nine tenths at least of the so-ealled 'rebel' 
army were only too delighted at the opportunity of throwing away 
their arms and their uniforms, of donning once more with all haste 
their galaUahs of blue cotton, and returning to the unconstrained 
life and patient labor in their beloved fields, which were so much 
more congenial to them than the duties and the dangers of military 
service. The next day two squadrons of British cavalry reached 
Cairo. They had ridden straight across the desert, some forty miles, 
and both men and horses were nearly dead from fatigue ; yet the 
citadel and city, though occupied by a strong body of Arabi's troops, 
surrendered without a show of resistance. The 'rebellion' was at 
an end."— Sir Alfred Milner, in "England in Egypt." 

265 



Present-Day Egypt 

by the efforts of those supporting him, and by the 
blunders of his opponents. After Tel-el-Kebir he 
never uttered one word of regret, never made a 
single inquiry as to the fate of those poor wretches 
who were the victims rather of his dunderhead 
stupidity than of his intentional wickedness." 

Many times, before and after the revolt, Tewfik 
Pasha was deplorably wanting in firmness, and, on 
the other hand, was more than once as heroic as 
any man could be when in imminent danger. If 
compelled to decide quickly, the decision was too 
often on the side of error ; but with time for de- 
liberation, his conclusion was nearly always to do 
the right thing, unmindful of the peril or the con- 
sequences. A man of the greatest genius, however, 
might have found it difficult to thread his course 
through such a labyrinth of doubts and misfor- 
tunes as that in which the khedive was placed. 

If any benefits immediately resulted from Eng- 
land's voluntary aid to Egypt, the breaking of the 
dual control was the first in importance. French 
susceptibilities were so irritated by the non-depar- 
ture of the British troops, sent to the country to 
restore the authority of the khedive, that the gov- 
ernment of France declined to remain a party to 
the management of Egyptian finances. I do not 
express an opinion as to the wisdom of this action 
as a matter of policy, but the withdrawal of France 
certainly helped the position of the poor Egyptians, 
for they had then one master less. A single con- 
trol is preferable to any other form of oligarchy, 
when the welfare of a suffering people is considered. 

266 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

By the old system, with each side issuing a procla- 
mation almost daily to the other, the patient was 
in danger of succumbing while the rival physicians 
were deciding which should take the responsibility 
of going to his relief. 

During the bombardment Tewfik was in his pal- 
ace three miles out of Alexandria, with his wife. 
When urged before the shelling of the city to seek 
shelter on his yacht or on a war-ship, his answer 
was : " No. I will remain with my people in their 
hour of danger. I am still their khedive." Within 
range of shots from the ships in the harbor, and 
with a bloodthirsty, looting mob near by, Tewfik 
remained in his Ramleh palace throughout the 
two days of carnage. Shortly after the crushing 
of Arabi, cholera broke out in Cairo in its most fatal 
form. Then this man who had failed to nip a re- 
bellion in the bud by a commanding word to Arabi 
went deliberately with his khedivah to the capital, 
against the advice of his suite, and to the dismay 
of the physicians. He went from hospital to hos- 
pital, inspiring courage throughout the stricken 
city by his example, and helping the bereaved with 
money from a purse not overfiowing. 

Called to a heritage of bankruptcy, discontent, 
and rebellion, Tewfik Pasha was a virtuous and 
amiable prince, whose failings inspired sympathy. 
He regretted the ravages of cholera in Cairo and 
the Delta more than the losing to the Mahdi of 
millions of miles of valuable territory in the Sudan, 
chiefly because he had witnessed the horrors of the 
home calamity, possibly. 

267 



Present-Day Egypt 

Tewfik preferred the early morning for work, and 
documents dealing with public affairs were then 
read and arranged before his secretaries were astir. 
He always varied his labors with outdoor exercise, 
and many were the anecdotes related by him of the 
experiences with soldiers and policemen who did 
not recognize as the khedive the sleek, rotund 
little man taking a morning constitutional. He 
frequently slipped over to the Grhizereh gardens 
at sunrise to view the horticultural beauties when 
only the fellah was astir. Returning to the palace 
from one of these rambles, he was stopped by a 
good-natured British soldier doing sentry duty at 
the main entrance, with these words : " Hi, there ! 
Yer can't go in 'ere, yer know." 

" But I belong to the palace," said the khedive, 
enjoying the situation. 

" Oh, do yer ? Well, what sort of a place 'ave yer 
got, anyway?" added Tommy Atkins, convinced 
of his right to have a bit of chaff with any " f urri- 
ner." 

" Very good." 

"Ah, fine times, I s'pose; nothin' to do and 
plenty to eat, from the look o' yer. "Would n't mind 
servin' this chap meself, if 'e 'd find me five bob a 
day." 

A sergeant on his rounds cut short the soldier's 
lingo, and his Highness went into the palace to his 
books and papers, enjoying the joke more than the 
discomfited redcoat did. 

When Arabi, Mahmoud Sami, and other ring- 
leaders of the rebellion had been sentenced to death 

268 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

for treason, Tewfik was the first to speak for a com- 
mutation of sentence to life-banishment. Arabi 
and his surviving fellow-traitors in Ceylon could 
not have been forgetful of what they owed to the 
tender heart of the khedive they had conspired to 
destroy, when they heard that his Highness had 
died suddenly, while still a comparatively young 
man, at Helouan, on January 7, 1892. 

A brief account of Arabi in his exile may not be 
out of place in concluding my chapter. It is 
more than twenty years since he and the seven 
other rebels said farewell to their native land, 
bound for Ceylon, under military escort. Since 
then Abd-el-Aal Pasha, the most stalwart of them 
all, and Mahmoud Fehmy, the astute engineer who 
nearly succeeded in blocking the Suez Canal, have 
gone over to the great majority. But Arabi him- 
self, as well as Mahmoud Sami, Toulba Osmat, Ali 
Fehmy, and Yacoub Sami, are still not only in the 
land of the living, but in very good health and 
spirits. 

There has been a good deal of marrying and 
giving in marriage since the steamer Mareotis 
took her contingent of prisoners to Colombo. The 
sons born prior to their fathers' political troubles 
are, for the most part, serving the present khe- 
dive in more or less responsible positions; but 
many children of both sexes have been born to the 
pashas since they set foot on British soil, and they 
consequently are both de jure and de facto British 
subjects. For some time there was much grum- 
bling among the exiles, who suffered from the 

13 271 



Present-Day Egypt 

marked difference between the dry heat of the Nile 
valley and the depressing damp heat of Ceylon. 
They hoped against hope for permission to return 
to Egypt, and for years Arabi's friends did their 
utmost to second his efforts to secure a pardon. 

From the first the exiles were treated as per- 
sons of importance, and they have been the guests 
of the various governors who have held sway in 
Ceylon since 1883. Arabi's home has been visited 
by many thousands of Mohammedans on their road 
to Mecca, as well as by an immense number of 
European and American travelers. He is now 
located in a picturesque bungalow in the ancient 
capital of the island, Kandy, in the interior, where 
the temperature is more like that of his native 
country than that of the coast. Arabi has ceased 
to find his life in Ceylon either irksome or other- 
wise unpleasant. His " visiting-book " is in its way 
a notable curiosity, and he can now talk of the 
events of 1882 without the smallest bitterness. He 
has learned to speak English with tolerable fluency 
and takes a deep interest in the political events of 
the day. Sometimes his mind wanders back to 
the much-loved land from which he sprang, and 
the freedom for which he fought. He is still in the 
prime of life, for the rebel leader was only just 
forty when "he surrendered his sword and his 
honor into the hands of the English " on the mor- 
row of Tel-el-Kebir. 

If not such a "dunderhead" in these years as 
when hatching rebellion in Egypt, Arabi's reflec- 
tions would be interesting, could we know them. No 

272 



Tewfik and the Arabi Rebellion 

longer a political issue himseK, the administration 
of Egypt, owing its creation to him, becomes an in- 
ternational issue, as well as an anomaly having no 
parallel in history. This control of affairs, upheld 
by four or five thousand British bayonets, on soil 
not belonging to the British empire, is an institu- 
tion over which European statesmen have long 
wi-angled. "Advisers" to the khedive, under- 
secretaries of state, irrigation experts, military 
and civil servants of high degree and correspond- 
ing pay, and small-fry officials by the hundred, 
owe their employment in the land of the Nile to 
the muddle-headed Arabi, now dreaming away his 
days in the hills of Ceylon. The common people 
of his beloved Egypt, for whom he was so solicitous 
in 1881 and 1882, are now enjoying a measure of 
prosperity greater than they had ever known, 
oddly enough, as a sequence of his efforts to free 
them from the grasp of the infidel. 

Some philosophers, maybe, see in Arabi one who 
has done his share toward making Britain's foreign 
policy so successful as to excite the jealousy of half 
the nations of the Old World. Unlike Clive, 
Hastings, and Cecil Ehodes, Arabi accomplished 
what he did for England as the result of bigoted 
ignorance and blundering, not of clear-sighted 
intention. 

Note.— Soon after Queen Victoria's death Arabi Pasha was par- 
doned and permitted to return to Egypt, where he now is, a broken 
man. 



273 



CHAPTER IX 

THE PRESENT KHEDIVE AND KHEDIVAIi FAMILY 

HIS Highness Abbas Hilmi II was born in 
Cairo on July 14, 1874, and succeeded to the 
khedivate at the age of eighteen. Estimates of his 
character are never indefinite, for he is liked or dis- 
liked intensely — it depends upon the point of view 
from which the judgment is formed. The public 
relying upon English newspapers for knowledge 
of persons and events has no doubt regarding the 
intractable nature of the khedive. The human mind 
in time accepts as facts, concrete and unyielding, 
what is heard and read for years. The unattractive 
side of Abbas Pasha from the day he came to the 
khedivate has frequently been paraded in English 
prints. Hence the majority of English people do 
not like him. They believe they know him, but 
manifestly do not. Yet no people on earth so per- 
sistently demand fair play as our British cousins. 
The opinion of Abbas held in the British Isles is 
the outcome of political exigencies. Whenever an 
Egyptian "incident" calls for official attention in 
London, Fleet Street is moved to applaud England's 
foreign policy, and decry the khedive whose rebel- 
lious spirit has led him to show by manner or word 

274 



The Present Khedival Family 

that he would like to guide unaided the government 
of which he is the titular head. This is an expe- 
dient of the moment, defensible, possibly, because 
patriotic. But when the young Egyptian is forced 
to repress his desire to rule over his people, subject 
only to his suzerain, the newspapers forget to neu- 
tralize the harsh things said of him in their zeal to 
promote Britain's foreign interests. It seldom oc- 
curs to English journalists that Abbas, too, knows 
the meaning of the words " fair play." 

This young man, the seventh of the Mehemet All 
line to be at the head of the Egyptian people, 
makes no pretension to unusual wisdom; yet his 
capabilities are of an order making of him a not 
unworthy successor to the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, 
Alexander and Cleopatra. He lacks some of the 
amiable characteristics of his father, Khedive Tew- 
fik, it is true ; but he is incomparably better qualified 
for successful administrative work. English people 
approved of Tewfik Pasha, but that khedive never 
aroused their anger by expressing wishes or opinions. 
He was pliable as clay in the strong British grasp. 

Abbas's faults are neither numerous nor serious. 
His good qualities exceed in number those possessed 
by the average prince of his years and experience. 
The sentiment of patriotism is one that justly 
claims respect, and that he should desire to be free 
from foreign tutelage is natural enough. To learn 
his true character and arrive at a just conclusion of 
his worth, he must be measured at home, since the 
opinions spread before readers of English news- 
papers and books are scarcely ingenuous. 

275 



Present-Day Egypt 

For four years I endeavored to be a fair-minded 
student of the character of Abbas Pasha. The let- 
ter of credence that I bore from the President of 
the United States commended me to him as the head 
of the Egyptian government ; and throughout my 
residence in the Egyptian capital I punctiliously 
treated him as my instructions demanded. Study 
my credentials as I would, I could discover no in- 
timation that the khedive was but a nominal ex- 
ecutive, and my documents from Washington made 
no reference to G-reat Britain as the dominating 
power in Egypt. 

British functionaries of a rank entitling them to 
come into personal relations with Abbas Pasha 
form a sincere liking for him. But the petty sub- 
ordinate, seeing him at a distance, or more likely 
not at all, is obstinately wedded to the belief that 
it is his duty as a loyal Briton to utter partizan 
opinion against the nominal head of the govern- 
ment from which he may be earning his daily 
bread. Americans, on the other hand, invariably 
like Khedive Abbas, and as a people they are not 
incapable of forming sound judgments. They see 
him with eyes not blurred with political vapors. 

Less than twelve years ago Prince Abbas was a 
light-hearted student in Vienna, pursuing a course 
of study at the famous Theresianum fitting him 
for the exalted position some day to be his. ^The 
Austrian emperor took a kindly interest in the lad 
being educated to rule the oldest nation in the 
world, and means were provided for giving him a 
practical insight into the profession of the soldier, 

276 




PRINCE MEHEMET ALI PASHA, BROTHER OF THE KHEDIVE. 



The Present Khedival Family 

as well as the calling of the engineer and the skilled 
artisan. In the midst of these pursuits, at a time 
when he believed he had many years for study and 
traA^^el, the news was cabled from Cairo, on Janu- 
ary 7, 1892, that Tewfik Pasha had died suddenly, 
and that Prince Abbas had been proclaimed khe- 
dive. 

Thus ended abruptly the happy student days, 
and the prince had to exchange the outspoken lan- 
guage of youth for the carefully considered phrases 
of the head of a nation to control which several 
European governments were in jealous rivalry, one 
of them being represented on Egyptian soil, without 
any real authority, by an army of five thousand men, 
and hundreds of officials employed in administra- 
tive capacities. It was surely not a promising 
prospect. 

Abbas was taught English as a child, by a gover- 
ness, and later special tutors were brought from 
England to perfect his knowledge of the language. 
An American officer in the Egyptian army was as- 
signed to teach the military rudiments not only to 
the heir to the khedivate, but to Prince Mehemet Ali, 
a year younger, as well. At the age of twelve Abbas 
was sent to the celebrated Haxius school at Ge- 
neva to complete the preparatory course fitting him 
for the Theresianum. 

In his student days Abbas visited every capital 
in Europe, with the exception of Madrid and Lis- 
bon. He went to the North Cape and saw the mid- 
night sun, but, he remarks with a smile, has never 
made the ascent of the Gizeh Pyi-amids, which 

279 



Present-Day Egypt 

overlook his capital. During his travels he ob- 
served closely such institutions as he considered 
suitable for application to his own country, and 
the knowledge thus obtained has no doubt contrib- 
uted in a measure to the progress of present-day 
Egypt. Plans had been arranged for a protracted 
visit of the princes to the United States in the year 
of the Columbian Exposition. The itinerary would 
have taken them not only to Chicago and Washing- 
ton, but also to the principal industrial centers. 
Tewfik Pasha had planned for instructors to ac- 
company the young men, who would have given 
them an insight into the sources of America's great- 
ness. Abbas Pasha has more than once expressed 
his keen regret that fate should have deprived him 
of the advantage of seeing the country with which 
his grandfather had established valued relations. 

Elevation to exalted position has not obliterated 
the memory of comradeships at Greneva andVienna ; 
for when the khedive is sufficiently acquainted 
with his caller to lay aside formalities, and the 
visitor is American, he will recall many pleasant 
companionships with American youths, mentioning 
them by name when speaking of their attractive 
qualities. 

The lingual capacity of the khedive is striking, 
especially to those who regard a prince's training as 
purely ornamental. During the course of an " audi- 
ence-day " it frequently happens that he discusses 
questions of state with the British and United 
States diplomatic agents in excellent English, with 
the representative of France in faultless French, 

280 



The Present Khedival Family 

and with the German in the choicest language of the 
Austrian court. Later he conducts affairs with the 
Sultan's representative in Turkish, and may con- 
clude the day by presiding over a council of his 
ministry, when all sorts of intricate details of policy 
are arranged in Arabic, the native tongue of Egypt, 
and one of the most difficult of languages. The 
evening may see his Highness at the theater, lis- 
tening with pleasure and understanding to opera 
rendered in Italian. 

The accomplishment yielding the khedive his 
greatest pleasure, next to his horsemanship, is his 
musical proficiency. He is a skilful pianist, and 
has a correct ear for melody. Included in his en- 
tourage are forty or fifty picked musicians, consti- 
tuting his private band, whose position is anything 
but a sinecure. At Koubbeh the bandsmen are 
quartered close to the palace, and an abbreviated 
rehearsal or a flagrantly false note receives imme- 
diate attention from his Highness, it is said. 

Abbas Pasha does not claim infallibility, but 
realizes, like his seniors, that administrative mis- 
takes can be made. He is a very different man 
from the ordinary type of Oriental sovereign, hav- 
ing no religious bigotry, narrowness of thought, or 
ignorance of the outside world. A desire to pro- 
mote the welfare of his people is his controlling 
thought, and under his guidance their future would 
be full of encouragement and hope. 

The khedive receives a yearly grant from the 
Egyptian government of five hundred thousand 
dollars. His private wealth is great, and chiefly 

281 



Present-Day Egypt 

invested in productive farms and cotton-plantations 
in the Nile Delta. His habits tend to thrift, per- 
haps as the natural result of the downfall of Khe- 
dive Ismail, whose extravagance has no parallel in 
history. In addition to the khedive's grant from 
the national exchequer, he receives another five 
hundred thousand dollars for the support of his 
mother, brother, sisters, and the various relatives 
of the khedival family, nearly a hundred in 
number. 

He is a strict disciplinarian,— reflecting doubtless 
his Austrian training,— but is just, considerate, and 
kind. State and show he dislikes, but insists on 
receiving the full deference due his rank. In child- 
hood the two brothers, in addressing each other, 
invariably employed the full title, as Prince Abbas 
Bey and Prince Mehemet Ali Bey. On one occa- 
sion, it is related, however, the latter was inclined 
to be indolent and shirk his lesson. 

" Come, Prince," urged the instructor, " it must 
be done." 

Abbas Bey at once exclaimed : " Prince, indeed ! 
My brother is no prince when idle— he is only a 
fellah." 

One privileged to meet the khedive is led to the 
audience-chamber through files of saluting guards- 
men—in smart blue uniforms if it is winter and at 
Abdin Palace in Cairo, or in white uniforms if it 
is summer at Ras-el-Teen in Alexandria. He is 
greeted at the door in a manner proving the khe- 
dive's geniality. After shaking hands the visitor 
is motioned to a seat on the divan with his High- 

282 












#• 



f 



The Present Khedival Family 

ness. Khedive Abbas has a pleasing face, full and 
round, with a fair complexion browned by out- 
door exercise. The upper lip is arched and deli- 
cately molded ; the lower full, but without a touch 
of grossness. There is a little dark mustache, to 
which he puts his right hand in moments of ani- 
mation, twisting its ends. 

No portrait gives an idea of the wonder of the 
face, which comes from eyes of light hazel, and the 
fair, clear complexion derived from his Turkish 
ancestors. The eyes mirror every emotion, flash- 
ing with the light of laughter, and deepening with 
the shadow of thought. Photographs of the khe- 
dive cannot possibly suggest the charm of face, 
coming with his mood, and varying therewith. Ab- 
bas's figure tends to stoutness, and he is not tall. 
He is unmistakably magnetic, agreeable, and men- 
tally alert. In his dress there is nothing Oriental, 
save the red tarboosh, never removed from the 
head. The clothes might be those of any young 
American, not particular as to the latest mode, but 
his coat on ordinary occasions is invariably a frock. 
Jewelry and glossy boots are never in evidence, 
except when he wears the uniform of commander- 
in-chief of the army, with gemmed orders, sword, 
and accoutrements. 

A visitor quickly discovers that he is dealing 
with no novice of life and affairs, but with one 
whose responsible position has forced a precocious 
maturity, for Abbas's manner and words are those 
of a man of thirty-five. He quickly grasps the 
point of a question, and a few minutes' conver- 

285 



Present-Day Egypt 



sation shows him to have a good insight into cur- 
rent events. 

A remarkable memory enables the khedive to 
converse effectively on almost any topic. When 
on military subjects he will speak of the excellent 
services rendered the Egyptian army by the Ameri- 
cans who placed it on a footing of eflSciency in his 
grandfather's time. It is the firmly set mouth that 
indicates his determination, inherited from Ismail, 
and which his own father did not possess. The 
khedive is by some called stubborn and obstinate ; 
but, like many others, he can be more easily led than 
driven. 

His Highness rises usually at half -past five o'clock, 
and shortly after is in the saddle for a ride about 
Koubbeh or Montazah, visiting working parties and 
stables, and giving orders for the day after the 
manner of any gentleman farmer superintending 
his own estates. He breakfasts at eight, after 
which and up to noon, if it is not an audience-day 
in town, he is occupied with his secretaries in 
arranging and considering affairs of state, going 
thoroughly into details before deciding any matter. 
After luncheon a secretary replies to letters of a 
personal character under the khedive's direction, 
and from three to five his Highness receives diplo- 
matic and other official visitors, and then drives 
until sunset. It is his custom to appear on the 
Ghizereh oval, in Cairo, every Friday afternoon in 
the season. For an Eastern, Abbas Pasha is ex- 
traordinarily energetic. 

When the Duke of Cambridge was in Cairo, a few 
286 



The Present Khedival Family 

seasons since, it was arranged that a field-review 
be given of the Egyptian troops quartered in the 
capital, in honor of the famous commander-in-chief 
of Queen Victoria's army. The proposition came 
from Britishers in the Egyptian service, those who 
believe that Egypt would go to the eternal bow- 
wows were it not for the fostering hand of England. 
His Highness the Khedive was to be present, as 
nominal commander of the army. 

All Cairo was at Abbassieh, on horseback or in 
carriages, to see the manoeuvers. The khedive gal- 
loped on to the parade-ground with his aides, and 
immediately took command of the forces. The 
spectators were treated to something manifestly 
not on the bills, for the young Egyptian put the 
soldiers through their paces in a manner causing 
consternation to the officials who had intended the 
khedive to play an ornamental part only in the show. 

Infantry and cavalry were hurried here and there, 
the camel corps was sent across the desert to repel 
an imaginary foe, and platoons of artillery were 
ordered into position, and their guns belched forth 
volley after volley. This mimic warfare, extending 
over miles of the desert, was kept up for two hours, 
and waxed so fast and furious that nearly all the 
spectators had fallen by the wayside, from inability 
to keep up, long before it was over. His Royal 
Highness of England had not experienced such a 
shaking up for years, and when the campaign ended 
did not hesitate to say that the Egyptian soldiers 
were a fine lot of men, knowing every detail of a 
soldier's calling. 

287 



Present-Day Egypt 



This approving formula had become habitual 
with him in commending British yeomanry and 
volunteers, but in this case was uttered with unmis- 
takable sincerity. The old duke had seen more 
practical soldiering on the plains of Abbassieh than 
he had anticipated, and from that time he has been 
an admirer of the young khedive. 

Abbas Pasha never disobeys the command of the 
Koran by tasting wines or spirits, and the example 
to the youth of his country is carried further, for 
he is a total abstainer from tobacco, which, in a 
land where nearly everybody smokes cigarettes 
from morning until night, means much. 

A striking phase of character for one occupying 
so conspicuous a position before the world is the 
manner in which the khedive dissociates private life 
from official station. When his work at Abdin 
Palace is finished, a cavalry guard escorts him to 
the palace of Koubbeh, five miles out of Cairo, on 
the border of the desert. There is little suggesting 
princely estate about Koubbeh, save the few sol- 
diers of the khedival guard and the musicians 
and drummer-boys lounging in front of their quar- 
ters. The palace looks like the seat of a well-con- 
ditioned European family of country tastes. The 
presence of its master is indicated by the scarlet 
flag bearing the threefold star and crescent float- 
ing over the palace. 

The khedive's consort, described by those who 
know her as an attractive Circassian, and the 
six little children, are installed at Koubbeh dur- 
ing the winter season. It is likewise the home 

288 




THE SULTAN'S HIGH COMMISSIONER IN EGYPT, GHAZI MOUKHTAR PASHA 



The Present Khedival Family 

of the khedivah-mere, who, by reason of having 
been born a princess, takes rank over the khedivah 
as the first lady of the court. The khedivah- 
mere is only about forty-five years of age, and is 
said to be charming and accomplished. She was 
at one time the most beautiful of the princesses of 
the East. Her lovely, clear complexion, magnifi- 
cent eyes, with the shape of her face and the car- 
riage of the head, made her a very queen of beauty, 
it is claimed by ladies having the entree at the 
viceroyal court. Living in strict Mohammedan 
seclusion, and never appearing in public except with 
veiled faces, the ladies of the khedival family are 
not subjected to masculine gaze. Their attendance 
at the opera is concealed from the audience by 
screened boxes; but flashing jewels and shadowy 
outlines behind the gossamer curtains tell of their 
presence. 

Up to February 20, 1899, Prince Mehemet Ali 
was heir to the khedivate; but on that date the 
consort of Abbas Pasha gave birth to a son at the 
villa of Montazah, and while the happy event was 
being celebrated throughout the country, it was 
formally announced that Prince Mohammed Ab- 
doul-Mounaim, the newborn, was heir apparent to 
the khedival dignity and estate. This was in 
accord with the Sultan's firman of June 9, 1873, 
which provided that the succession to the khedi- 
vate of Egypt is exclusively by order of primogeni- 
ture in the male line. Should Abbas Pasha die, the 
firman provides for a regency until the heir attains 
his legal majority at the age of eighteen years. 

291 



Present-Day Egypt 

Having no official position in the Egyptian ad- 
ministration, Prince Mehemet Ali passes a good 
portion of eacli year in Paris. Every winter sees 
him in Cairo, where, although a bachelor, he resides 
in a bijou palace in the European quarter. 

The khedive has two sisters. The elder, the Prin- 
cess Khadija, born in 1880, is married to a Turkish 
notable, and spends much time at Constantinople ; 
the younger, the Princess Nimet, born in 1882, is 
wedded to her cousin, Djemil Pasha, an accom- 
plished and wealthy prince, who resides at Mou- 
nerah Palace in Cairo. 

While a devout believer in the religion of the 
Koran, the khedive has never taken advantage of its 
provision that one may have four wives. He is a 
monogamist, as was his father. The khedive has 
no harem in the European sense. Each of his pal- 
aces, however, has its "harem division," which 
means simply that portion set apart for the khe- 
divah and khedivah-mere and their enormous 
entourage. The attendants are young Turkish 
women, coming chiefly from the provinces of 
Georgia and Circassia, and are attired in exquisite 
garb of semi-European character. 

Although spoken of in the Orient as "slaves," 
many of these young women have the simplest 
duties, and in Europe might almost be regarded as 
ladies in waiting at court. It was a woman of this 
class that was taken by the khedive for his wife, 
and the published accounts of the marriage may 
have shocked western-world readers, knowing little 
of actual life in the East. It was in keeping with 

292 



The Present Khedival Family 

Mohammedan custom, however, and was most pop- 
ular with the Egyptians. 

For the Koubbeh estate the khedive has imported 
American farm machinery, to illustrate the advan- 
tages of tilling with modern appliances. There are 
extensive stables filled with choice horses from va- 
rious parts of the world. The position of honor 
is given to a magnificent Arabian steed with flow- 
ing tail, sent to Abbas Pasha by the Sultan. Close 
by is the English thoroughbred Cedar, presented 
by the late Colonel North, and in a neighboring 
stall stands an American trotter, the gift of an ad- 
miring Philadelphian. 

The dairy, kennels, and poultry-yard at Koubbeh 
are supplied with selected animals and fowls from 
every clime, and in them the khedive takes the 
keenest interest. For the work-people there is a 
model village, with mosque, school, and meeting- 
place where discussion is encouraged after the 
lyceum idea— all supported by the khedive, to 
demonstrate the benefits of order, cleanliness, and 
community of interests. The native fire-brigade, 
with English apparatus, would be creditable any- 
where. 

So devoted is Egypt's young ruler to horses that 
from his private purse he maintains a commission 
to improve horse-breeding. He offers valuable 
prizes at horse-shows, and himself makes entries 
for the races during the Cairo season, when it not 
infrequently happens that his colors are carried to 
victory by his native jockey. The khedive enjoys 
driving, and may often be met in the outskirts of 

1* 293 



Present~Day Egypt 

Cairo or Alexandria, holding the reins over a dash- 
ing pair, and accompanied by an aide-de-camp or 
one of his many relatives. 

Before the heat of summer comes, the khedival 
establishment, with its army of officials and atten- 
dants, moves to Alexandria. Six railway-trains are 
required to transfer the court. The khedive and 
his ministers and other high officers go in state in 
an observation saloon-car of American make. 

The historic structure, Ras-el-Teen, overlooking 
Alexandria harbor, is treated by the khedive simply 
as an official palace, as Abdin is in Cairo. The 
home-loving instinct has caused the khedive to 
create a summer retreat at Montazah, snugly nestled 
on the picturesque Mediterranean coast, a few miles 
to the east of Alexandria. There the family life, 
with artistic and musical surroundings, is carried 
on in charming simplicity. Perplexities arising 
from conferences at Ras-el-Teen are left in the 
precincts of the old palace. 

A mile to the eastward of Montazah is Abukir 
Bay, made famous by Nelson's victory over the 
French fleet little more than a century ago. Al- 
though Montazah was reclaimed from the desert 
only six years since, forests of quick-growing trees 
have sprung into existence ; many varieties of game- 
birds and animals have been domiciled there, in- 
cluding native antelope and European red deer, for 
the khedive is an ardent sportsman. In a remote 
part of the estate is the camp of the khedive's 
camel-corps, whose Bedouin riders are trained 
marksmen, and with whom he makes long journeys 

294 




NATIVE WOMAN AND CHILD. 



The Present Khedival Family 

in the desert. It is said that his Highness bears any 
amount of fatigue when on these excursions, and 
his caravan frequently marches from sunrise to 
sunset before bivouacking for the night. 

Montazah harbor shelters many boats, including 
a small yacht that conveys its master to Alexandria 
when he prefers the sea to special train or carriage. 
Safe anchorage is assured by a breakwater costing 
two hundred thousand dollars to construct. 

The khedival yacht MaJiroussa, of forty-five hun- 
dred tons and four hundred and forty feet long, is 
the largest in the world, if one excepts the war- ship 
Holienzollern, on which the German emperor makes 
summer cruises. For voyaging to Constantinople, 
cruising in the Grrecian Archipelago, or going to 
Triest or Venice, if the trip was to be regarded as 
" unofficial," the khedive formerly employed a beau- 
tiful Scotch-built yacht of seven hundred tons, 
capable of steaming fourteen knots an hour, and 
called Safa-el-BahTj the Arabic for "Joy of the Sea." 

Khedive Abbas, with his family, spends two or 
three months each summer in Europe. He is fond 
of visiting Switzerland incognito for a few weeks' 
sojourn in a high altitude. His Highness has sev- 
eral times made protracted stays in Constantinople. 
One of his numerous habitations is a palace on the 
Bosporus, presented by his august master, the 
Sultan. 

In a nautical talk the khedive told me that he 
was not the best of sailors, and instanced that sad 
winter voyage when summoned from Vienna to 
assume the throne of Egypt. Etiquette demanded 

297 



Present-Day Egypt 

that the Austrian emperor place a steamer at the 
youth's disposal, with an escort of dignitaries from 
the Vienna court. The vessel was old, "perhaps 
fifty years old, and very small," said the khedive. 
Violent storms had made the Adriatic and Medi- 
terranean turbulent, and the journey from Triest 
was disagreeable and trying. High seas retarded 
progress, and even the ship's officers wished them- 
selves ashore. At Brindisi Prince Abbas begged 
to have the ship wait for better weather. 

"I must not stop. Highness," was the admiral's 
reply, " for it is the emperor's command to lose no 
time, and the etiquette must be observed." 

When the peaceful harbors of Greece came in 
sight, the khedive again pleaded for delay. But 
the punctilious commander insisted that " the eti- 
quette must be observed, for it was his Majesty's 
order." 

This was too much for the poor sufferer, and he 
remarked to the ceremonious officer : " Etiquette is 
well enough in its place; but his Majesty Francis 
Joseph is comfortable in Vienna, and not seasick 
on this awful ship." 

The voyage was successfully completed, never- 
theless, and the day after landing on Egyptian soil 
the illustrious passenger formally took upon him- 
self the rulership of Egypt. 

The state ball given each winter at Abdin Palace 
by his Highness, besides being the most important 
social occurrence of the year, has a spectacular 
effect not to be excelled anywhere by any similar 
function. In its variety and contrasts it eclipses 

298 



The Present Khedival Family 

the governor-general's at Algiers, so often painted 
by great artists, and is claimed to be a pageant 
equal to the viceroyal ball at Calcutta. The khe- 
dive's annual ball occui's usually in January or 
February, and brings together representative types 
of nearly every race of Europe, Africa, and Asia, 
with a very liberal sprinkling of Americans. 

Conspicuous in the medley of brilliant uniforms 
are those of diplomatic celebrities and the leaders 
of the Egyptian army and the army of occupation, 
glittering with orders. There are present officials 
of every hue of countenance, including mudirs and 
omdehs from distant Egyptian provinces. Bedouin 
sheiks from the Red Sea coast, and perhaps Indian 
princes breaking their journey to or from England 
for a few weeks' participation in the gaieties of the 
khedival city. Abbas Pasha's hostship elicits gen- 
eral admiration. He receives those bidden to the 
festivity with a graceful cordiality, and makes a 
point of displaying his gallantry to the ladies of the 
diplomatic corps, whose pleasant duty it is to stand 
by his side and receive with him. The dancing 
begun, he appears to find much satisfaction in 
watching the moving figures in one of the most 
beautiful ball-rooms in the world. A box of gener- 
ous proportions, duly screened, is filled with the 
ladies of the khedival family, who watch the bril- 
liant scene, unperceived by those participating in 
it. The supper is a liberal education in gastronomy. 



299' 



CHAPTER X 

GREAT BRITAIN'S POSITION IN EGYPT 

THE Egyptian question is perennial, but 
American readers know only that version 
of it whicli British, writers prepare, and this, natu- 
rally, is apt to reflect their partizan bias. Most 
published opinion is so treated that the casual 
reader is led to believe that by some feat of diplo- 
macy, long forgotten by him, the ancient land of the 
Pharaohs has been segregated from the Ottoman 
empire and incorporated as an integral part of 
Queen Victoria's realm. This is in effect what has 
been done, but accomplished more through the co- 
operation of circumstances than by any precon- 
ceived intention to secure control of the country. 

Briefly stated, Grreat Britain's visible right to 
wield a dominating influence in Egypt is that she 
is in " occupation " with an armed force, and this 
only. In theory, at least, "occupation" means 
much less than " protectorate," and diplomacy has 
heretofore regarded it as a word fitting a tempo- 
rary expedient. But England does not bother 
about definitions. In point of fact, the Mle coun- 
try has for twenty-one years been more absolutely 
governed from London than has India, Canada, Aus- 

300 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

tralia, or any crown colony ; yet between England 
and Egypt there is no tie that is officially recognized 
by any European power. While Britain is prob- 
ably permanently established in Egypt, she has 
yet to legalize her position. Meanwhile, the welfare 
of the people of Egypt improves each year, Eng- 
land has become indifferent to the expressions of 
dissatisfaction by her only outspoken critic, France, 
and the cause of humanity and progress is steadily 
benefited by the British occupation, anomalous 
though it be. The Sultan is the only person pos- 
sessing an absolute right to demand a halt or a 
declaration of intentions on the part of the British 
government ; and the khedive can make his com- 
plaint of abridgment of authority only to his im- 
perial master at Constantinople. 

To discuss now the moral right of Great Britain 
to a foothold in Egypt is as superfluous as for a 
lawyer to argue in court that the state cannot 
arrest his client, when he is already a prisoner 
behind the bars. 

Not ou'e Englishman in a thousand has two 
opinions on the subject of national expansion ; if 
he has views against territorial acquisition, he never 
parades them in public prints to be read in other 
countries. This is a basic principle of the Briton's 
idea of patriotism. Frenchmen twit the British 
with being afflicted with the square-mile mania, 
and insist that the excuse for ministering to this is 
never analyzed so long as an additional foot of 
soil may be incorporated within that charmed zone 
of red encircling the earth, on which the sun 

301 



Present-Day Egypt 

never sets. On the other hand, Englishmen say 
with truth that were this instinct non-existent in 
their race, there would to-day be no British em- 
pire, and maintain that the world is enriched 
through their achievements as empire-builders. It 
seems to be an impulse difficult of suppression in 
the Anglo-Saxon, wherever his abode. 

Since France withdrew in 1883 from the dual 
control with England of the finances of the 
khedival government, Egypt has been in every- 
thing but name a dependency of Great Britain, 
the French in the meantime trying to resume their 
share in its administration. More than once they 
have urged the Sultan to interfere and order the 
English from his domain, and for many years 
they have doggedly obstructed Britain's conduct 
of Egyptian affairs, but with little success. 

Englishmen deny that there has ever been any 
serious thought of annexing Egypt; that would 
be grossly unjust to the Sultan and his vassal, the 
khedive, they confess, and lead to endless diplo- 
matic controversy. The occupation was entered 
upon with an unselfish motive, and was dictated 
by necessity, they say; but temporary expedients 
have the awkward knack of developing into per- 
manent conditions the world over. The routing of 
the khalifa and his dervish mob at Omdurman by 
the Anglo-Egyptian expedition led by Kitchener, 
the hoisting of the flags of Turkey and Great Brit- 
ain jointly over Khartum, the entering upon a 
scheme for constructing Nile reservoirs that can- 
not be intrusted to slipshod persons, and Cecil 

302 




VISCOUNT KITCHENER, FORMER SIRDAR OP THE EGYPTIAN ARMY. 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

Eliodes's materializing project for building with 
British money a Cape-to-Cairo railway, taken to- 
gether, cannot give the foes of British domination 
in Egypt much hope for expecting any radical 
change of program for many years to come. I 
am told that to this day there is periodical specu- 
lation in Spain as to when England may be ex- 
pected to restore to the Spanish government the 
rock of Gibraltar. Having this event always in 
contemplation, the Madrid council has for a cen- 
tury regularly appointed a grandee to the governor- 
ship of the rocky promontory that gives Grreat 
Britain control of the Mediterranean. The depar- 
ture of the English from Egypt is as unlikely to 
happen as their restoration of Gibraltar to the 
Spaniards. 

The statesmen guiding France in 1882 claimed to 
recognize no necessity for bombarding Alexandria, 
and when it was decided that England's ships were 
to fire upon the city, the French admiral was 
ordered to remove his fleet from the scene of con- 
flict. Frenchmen still insist that the Arabi rebellion 
could have been successfully dealt with on shore, 
and that the razing of Alexandria was wanton de- 
struction. When the war- ships of France steamed 
away from Alexandria they decided the fate of 
their country as a participator in the affairs of 
Egypt, and the record of that July day is an event- 
ful page in French history, and marks the beginning 
of the claim on the part of England to govern 
single-handed a country forming no part of the 
British empire. 



Present-Day Egypt 

It is known that England invited France to share 
the responsibilities of the bombardment ; but it is 
not known that France was urged to cooperate in 
the enterprise, or that anything was said on the 
point of a division of the spoils that would naturally 
fall to the power or powers undertaking the quell- 
ing of the Arabi insurrection. At all events, the 
French fleet took its leave of the country where 
French sympathies and influence had prevailed 
from the going there of Napoleon in 1798. As de- 
tailed in another chapter, Britain's fleet remained 
and reduced the best part of Alexandria to dust, 
making a prisoner of the rebel leader, and in a 
brief period stamped out what had been an in- 
differently planned uprising of that portion of 
Egypt's population easily swayed to fanaticism. 

If Englishmen have any really vital interest in 
Africa, it is to monopolize the Nile, which means 
more to their nation than the control of the Niger, 
the Kongo, and the Zambesi combined ; for the Nile 
is as potential commercially as it is politically, and 
the country lying at its mouth is the strategical 
keystone to Britain's Indian and Eastern super- 
structure. Statesmen and publicists throughout 
Europe are perpetually discussing what they term 
the Egyptian question or the Sudan question, and 
dilating upon the rights of England in Egypt ; but 
these are minor themes and subordinate to the 
great Nile question. 

Great Britain already controls every foot of the 
Nile valley not in barbaric hands, means to have it 
all, and has no intention of sharing the river with 

306 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

any other European power. Khartum now reached, 
England will stop at nothing to bring the valley- 
intervening between Khartum and the equatorial 
lakes safely within her dominion. Under no cir- 
cumstances would Britain share her control of any 
important part of the Nile with France, and she is 
ready to resist by force of arms any movement 
directed at a curtailment of her aspirations. Her 
attitude at the time of the Fashoda incident proved 
this, and did much to bring France to an under- 
standing as to the relative spheres of influence 
of the two governments in Africa. 

The southern provinces being now reconquered, 
and railways from Assuan to Khartum, and from 
the Red Sea to Khartum, either planned or building, 
in effect making the Sudan a British colony, Eng- 
land at some time may believe it to her advantage 
to relax her grip on Egypt and withdraw her troops 
from Cairo and Alexandria. But diplomatic bick- 
ering or pressure will never bring about this result, 
and no nation is alone sufficiently strong to enter 
upon actual warfare to oust the British from their 
position. The strength of the Muscovite may 
scarcely be expected to be ever directed against 
England in a contest for Egypt— the stakes would 
be too small ; and Russia, however pronounced her 
sentimental attachment to France, is not going 
to embark in war to further the ambitions of her 
volatile friend. Germany, while perhaps regarding 
England's methods in Egypt as forming a startling 
precedent in statecraft, has not sufficient inter- 
est to initiate any active campaign in connec- 



Present-Day Egypt 

tion therewith. Italy, again, is in spirit England's 
ally in more than one African enterprise; and 
Austria, by reason of being the Sultan's nearest 
neighbor, chooses to keep her hands free from the 
Egyptian imbroglio from politic motives. Hence 
it is no longer necessary for Englishmen to pretend 
that the occupation will end when Egypt " becomes 
capable of self-government," or when " normal con- 
ditions in the country have been restored." No- 
thing but England's voluntary action can bring 
about her evacuation of the Lower Nile valley and 
the Delta. 

The Czar aims at becoming the dictator of things 
Asiatic, possibly omitting India for the present. 
By brilliant diplomacy Russia acquired nearly all 
the increment of benefit going to Japan as a re- 
sult of Japan's victory over China ; and her influ- 
ence in Korea is well-nigh paramount, as it is also 
in Persia. Russia has various ways of reaching 
the East independent of the Suez Canal; she em- 
ploys Persia as a connecting overland link with 
India, or can even construct a railway from a Syrian 
port to the head of the Persian Gulf ; while Eng- 
land's alternative to the Suez Canal would be the 
old-time Cape route. But no route can offer a 
fraction of the advantages, commercial, political, or 
strategic, of the Suez waterway. That is always 
going to be the favorite avenue to the East. 

Great is the country of the Czar and the marvel- 
ous Siberian railway. The country is vast indeed, 
and is constantly growing— has a chronic taste for 
expansion, and is yearly exhibiting new evidences 

308 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

of that phase of its national character. Russia has 
within a few years, in further development of its 
expansion proclivities, secured a port on the Per- 
sian Gulf,— that is, one that borders on the Indian 
Ocean,— and, what is vitally important, has come to 
an agreement with England regarding their respec- 
tive aspirations in China. The aim of this agree- 
ment is to put an end to the battle for concessions, 
railway and other, which raged acrimoniously for 
two years. The Russian object is to avoid a con- 
flict which would interfere with the successful ex- 
ploitation of the transcontinental railway, on which 
she has spent an enormous sum, and also to get 
funds from Great Britain when needed for the de- 
velopment of industries at home. 

Russia's desire to avoid British opposition may 
be taken to mean that the Northern Bear will be 
slow to direct its gaze toward Egypt in a menacing 
manner. Two centuries ago Russia had but a sin- 
gle sea-outlet, the Gulf of Finland. Later she se- 
cured control of the eastern Baltic and obtained a 
free course to the North Atlantic. Once more she 
reached out and gained an outlet into the Mediter- 
ranean through the Black Sea. Again she reached 
out for the eastern Asiatic trade and attained that 
object, and a few years ago she acquired a port on 
the Indian Ocean and came to an understanding 
with John Bull respecting Chinese matters; and 
this can have no other meaning than " hands off " 
in Egypt. 

England has certainly so interwoven the destinies 
of the country of the Nile with her own that evacu- 

309 



Present-Day Egypt 

ation could be accomplislied only with, great con- 
fusion to a policy under whicli Egyptian finances 
have not only been repaired, but placed on a foot- 
ing of enviable solvency. 

The Dongola expedition, a few years since, 
afforded opportunity for England to show Euro- 
pean military critics and strategists the possibilities 
of her imperial resources in a defensive way, by 
bringing from India several native regiments which 
garrisoned Suakim and other Red Sea ports dur- 
ing the months when the entire Egyptian army was 
concentrated on the Upper Nile. It would not be 
difficult, at any time, for Great Britain to place a 
good-sized army of Indians in the Nile valley, in- 
dependent of her naval position in the Mediterra- 
nean, if she dared weaken her strength in India for 
a time. Rail connection between the Red Sea and 
the Upper Nile would render this easy. 

The reconquest of the Sudan cannot, for a year 
or two at least, mean that the provinces south of 
Dongola are open to trade. The whole region 
about Khartum, and for hundreds of miles up and 
down the Nile valley, was practically depopulated 
as a consequence of the years of tyranny and mis- 
rule of the khalifa. To bring the natives back to 
the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and its con- 
comitant interests can be accomplished gradually 
only by Sirdar Wingate and his assistants. Not 
until this is done, and the Anglo-Egyptian author- 
ity organized in all its civil ramifications, can the 
Sudan be regarded as " open " to the world. It 
wiU be a long time, at all events, before the Su- 

310 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

dau will be able to pay its way; but with good 
management it should eventually become a con- 
tributor to the Cairo exchequer. 

It is interesting to observe, by recorded official ut- 
terances and the sequence of events, how the reten- 
tion of Egypt by Great Britain could not have been 
seriously considered until years after the occupa- 
tion had been entered upon. Oftentimes it is en- 
tertaining to follow the development of an idea, 
especially one having for its consummation a result 
or condition the very opposite of the purpose de- 
clared at the outset. To begin the evolution of the 
idea of permanently retaining Egypt, it is instruc- 
tive to state that the Gladstone government, which 
sent the troops and ships to Egypt in 1882, asserted 
that British intervention was made solely in the 
interests of humanity, and for the purpose of sup- 
pressing the Arabi rebellion and restoring the au- 
thority of the khedive. These pledges, although 
addressed to no specific government, were accepted 
in Europe in good faith. 

A few hours before opening the bombardment of 
Alexandria, the commander of the British fleet said, 
in a formal communication to Khedive Tewfik: 
" I deem it opportune to reaffirm to your Highness 
that the government of Great Britain has no in- 
tention to effect the conquest of Egypt, nor to in- 
terfere in any way with the liberties or religion of 
the Egyptians; its sole object is to protect your 
Highness and the Egyptian people from the rebels." 

Admiral Seymour spoke with the authority of 
his government in this momentous matter, as did 

3^3 



Present-Day Egypt 

Greneral Sir Garnet Wolseley, who led the later 
campaign on shore, when, to hasten the restoration 
of law and order, after the rebellion had been 
crushed, he said in a proclamation to the people 
of Egypt: "The general in command of the 
British forces wishes to make known that the 
object of her Majesty's government in sending 
troops to this conntry is to reestablish the author- 
ity of the khedive. . . . The general in command 
will be glad to receive visits from chiefs who are 
willing to assist in repressing the rebellion against 
the khedive, the lawful ruler of Egypt appointed by 
the Sultan." 

Even that ablest of diplomatists, Lord Dufferin, 
then ambassador to the Sultan, formally announced, 
over his signature, that England, by her interfer- 
ence in Egypt, was " seeking no territorial advan- 
tage, nor the acquisition of any exclusive privilege, 
nor any commercial advantage for her subjects 
which cannot be obtained equally for the subjects 
of any other nation." 

Arabi was tried in Cairo for treason, defended by 
English barristers, found guilty, and sentenced to 
death. His campaign cry of " Egypt for the Egyp- 
tians " in a way stamping him as a patriot, and the 
people enrolled under his banner having some show 
of reason for their objection to the frequent inter- 
ference of foreign powers clamoring for money, 
his sentence was promptly modified to banishment 
for life. 

English influence was responsible for the com- 
mutation of the sentence, and Great Britain, which 

3H 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

seemingly takes upon itself the task of policing half 
the world, sent Arabi and his principal supporters 
into exile in British territory, for a crime in no sense 
committed against England. Thus, for usurping 
the khedival prerogative,— which, plainly stated, 
can have no other meaning than the right to direct 
the administration of Egypt,— Arabi was guilty of 
an offense punishable by death or deportation. 

The British government announced, shortly after 
the crushing of Arabi, that its " army of occupa- 
tion " would be withdrawn as soon as law and order 
could be restored, and a date six months thence 
was actually fixed for the departure of the troops. 
Her philanthropic task not being completed, in her 
opinion, at the end of the six months, an extension 
of time for another six months was made. At all 
events, the occupation was to last only for the brief 
period that would be necessary to teach the Egyp- 
tians the easy art of self-government. But the 
soldiers have never left Egypt. 

Thus the word " occupation " promises for many 
years to be applied to a novel operation in terri- 
torial expansion, entered upon in the name of hu- 
manity ; and the right of ruling Egypt, taken from 
the khedive by Arabi the rebel, and technically 
wrested from him by Great Britain, will probably 
never again fully reside in the family of Mehemet 
Ali. Military occupation indefinitely extended, as 
illustrated in Egypt, amounts to annexation. The 
present system is called euphemistically by some a 
*' veiled protectorate." 

The mind of the reader is certain to revert to the 



Present-Day Egypt 

utterance of the Congress of the United States, 
when, in declaring war against Spain to free the 
people of Cuba, it was stated in language so clear 
that ambiguity was out of the question : " That the 
United States hereby disclaims any disposition or 
intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or 
control over said island, except for the pacification 
thereof, and asserts its determination when that is 
accomplished to leave the government and control 
of the island to its people." The Englishman, alert 
in seeking instances that tend to justify Britain's 
position in Egypt, believed and hoped that he was 
to have a helpful parallel in the outcome of our 
relations with Cuba, but was mistaken. 

Englishmen make a point of recalling that the 
Sultan declined to send Turkish troops to quell the 
Alexandrian disorders in 1882, and they likewise 
point to Tunis, when justifying their attitude to- 
ward Egypt, and assert that France is doing with 
that country exactly what the British are doing 
with Egypt. 

There is now and then a spasmodic demand in 
the British Isles, raised by "Little Englanders," 
that England's hand be lifted from Egypt, that the 
Tory policy of grab be reversed. Mr. Gladstone 
stated on all possible occasions that Britain had no 
right to remain in Egypt, and politicians of the 
Dilke, Harcourt, Courtney, Labouchere, and Mar- 
riott type frequently raise their voices in condemna- 
tion of a continuance of British rule in Egypt. 
These men talk only when their party in Parlia- 
ment is in the minority, however ; should one of 

316 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

them find himself a member of the government he 
would in all probability be as silent on the subject 
of evacuation as the Sphinx itself. 

Does England profit sufficiently from her re- 
tention of Egypt to warrant the jealous hatred of 
France, her nearest neighbor ? 

Great Britain has well-nigh made an English 
lake of the Mediterranean ; the outlet of this lake, 
the Suez Canal, is the key to the whole scheme of 
British rule in India and the East. To control the 
canal, by force of arms if necessary, is the pre- 
dominant reason why England remains in Egypt. 
It serves her purpose perfectly to have five thou- 
sand redcoats within a few hours' journey of the 
great international waterway, and a guardship at 
each terminus of it. Without the absolute con- 
trol of this connecting-link between Occident and 
Orient, thirty-six million people in G-reat Britain 
could not expect long to hold in subjection four 
hundred millions in India, and to govern a quarter 
of the globe. 

Monetary considerations have as much weight 
with Englishmen as with other people. As perhaps 
half of Egypt's bonded debt was held in England 
when the occupation began, the gradual apprecia- 
tion of the value of Egyptian securities has seemed 
to Britishers another justification, perhaps of secon- 
dary importance, for continuing their sojourn in 
Egypt. When they went there, it must be ad- 
mitted, Egyptian credit was as low as it well 
could be. 

In 1882, it is estimated, English people owned 



Present-Day Egypt 

bonds to the face- value of two hundred and seventy- 
five million dollars, and these could not have been 
sold then for more than half that sum. "Egyp- 
tians " are now quoted at a premium of from three 
to six per cent., and the difference between the 
market value in 1882 and the value to-day of 
England's supposed financial stake in Egypt is the 
comfortable sum of one hundred and forty million 
dollars — sufficient to pay for the army of occupa- 
tion for more than a century ! This restoration of 
Egyptian credit has benefited all bondholders pro- 
portionately — French, Grerman, Italian, Austrian, 
and Russian, as well as English. 

An incidental reason why Great Britain retains 
her hold upon Egypt is that the cotton crop of 
the Nile valley reduces more and more each year 
the dependence of British spindles upon the cotton- 
fields of the United States. 

There are also several considerations of minor 
importance which have influenced the Egyptian 
policy of England. The reconquest of the Sudan 
could be prosecuted only from the north, and 
geographers are agreed that whoever controls 
equatorial Africa and the sources of the Nile be- 
comes the natural holder of Egypt. Therefore, with- 
out Egypt firmly in hand, the ambition of British 
map-makers for a zone of territory stretching con- 
tinuously from Cape Town to Cairo, and bringing 
more than half the African continent under British 
influence, must of necessity be abandoned. 

The statement so often seen in French journals 
that Egypt possesses a value to England as a dump- 

318 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

ing-ground for younger sons and a horde of civil 
and military functionaries, furnishing the minimum 
of usefulness for the maximum of compensation, is 
petty, and forms no part of a scheme of such mag- 
intude as the practical absorption of Egypt. 

The land of the Pyramids has become a short cut 
to English honors, as the Suez Canal is to the Brit- 
ish possessions in the East, and no act of courage, 
benefit, or policy on the part of a British mihtary 
or civil official there passes unrecognized by the 
home government. At least four peerages have 
fallen to British servants in Egypt since the bom- 
bardment of Alexandria, and knighthood and lesser 
degrees of chivalry have been apportioned to the 
Briton serving in the Nile land with lavish gen- 
erosity. In most cases the dignities have been 
merited, doubtless, under England's system of be- 
stowing rewards. As a recognition for dealing the 
death-blow to Mahdiism, Kitchener's peerage and 
the Parliamentary grant of thirty thousand pounds 
sterling were not excessive. 

Are the people of Egypt materially benefited by 
English rule? 

Unquestionably they are. Unpopular as it is 
with a majority of the people of Egypt, humiliat- 
ing to the Sultan and the khedive, and at times 
bitterly criticized in Europe, the occupation has 
done vast good. No fair-minded investigator can 
witness the present condition of the Egyptian fel- 
laheen, or peasantry, knowing what it was before 
the advent of the English, without conceding this. 
For a dozen years Egypt has fairly teemed with 

321 



Present-Day Egypt 

prosperity. The story of that country's emergence 
from practical bankruptcy, with its securities 
quoted nearly as high as English consols, reads like 
a romance; and there is no better example of 
economical progress through administrative re- 
form than is presented by Egypt under British 
rule. 

Security is assured to person and property, sla- 
very has been legally abolished, official corruption 
is almost a thing of the past, forced labor for pub- 
lic works is no longer permitted, and native courts 
have now more than a semblance of justice. Hygi- 
enic matters have been so carefully looked after that 
the population has increased from seven to nearly 
ten millions in a decade or more. Land-taxes have 
been lowered and equalized and are systematically 
collected, and scientific irrigation is so generally 
employed that the cultivable area has been consid- 
erably extended. Egypt was probably never so 
prosperous as at the present time. The debt is 
being slightly reduced, and will be made less bur- 
densome, as time goes on, by the increased produc- 
tiveness of the soil. It is indeed a mighty stride 
from the Egypt of Ismail Pasha to the Egypt of 
Lord Cromer. 

The present external debt of Egypt is approxi- 
mately five hundred and eight million dollars, and 
it is a popular error that it has been reduced since 
the advent of the English. As a fact, it has been 
increased by forty million dollars. This went to 
indemnify Alexandrians whose property was de- 
stroyed at the time of the rebellion and bombard- 

322 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

ment, to defray the cost of the military campaign 
resulting in the loss of the Sudan, for the recent 
reconquest of the Sudan provinces, and for certain 
public works deemed imperatively necessary. 

By her management of affairs England has, 
nevertheless, so improved the conditions in Egypt 
that European bondholders have been satisfied to 
have the interest on their bonds reduced from seven 
to three and a half or four per cent. 

England possesses a capacity for conducting 
colonies and rehabilitating run-down countries 
which amounts almost to genius. Overbearing and 
arrogant as the British functionary out of England 
often appears to be, he must be scrupulously hon- 
est and generally capable to find a place in the 
perfectly organized machinery guided from Lon- 
don. Frenchmen say that Egypt's restoration to 
prosperity could have been better accomplished 
by them, and some allege that this prosperity is 
more apparent than real, charging that much is 
neglected in the desire to make a favorable show- 
ing in the yearly balance-sheet. But a frank 
investigation of what France does with her own 
dependencies, nearly every one of which is run at 
a loss, gives support to the belief that Egypt is 
better off under British guidance than she could be 
under that of France. No alien power could have 
done better in Egypt than Great Britain has. But 
her critics claim to recognize scant justification for 
Britain's absorption of the country of the khedive 
merely because of her ability to do good work 
there, and point to the glaring flaw in her title. 

323 



Present-Day Egypt 

Has England educated the Egyptians to govern 
themselves ? 

Not as yet, certainly. 

England's desire to remain in Egypt could not 
better be served than by making her functionaries 
appear essential to the well-being of the country ; 
in fact, by making progress dependent upon her 
administrators, accountants, and irrigation experts. 
This they have surely done, and the " understudies " 
of these clever servants, those who could best take 
their places, are Englishmen, not Egyptians. There 
are many hundred native subordinates doing the 
simplest routine work, who perceive the splendid 
results, but contribute thereto chiefly by their sub- 
missiveness. They are not being instructed suflBi- 
ciently to keep Egypt from retrogressing should 
they find themselves in charge of affairs. 

The khedive is compelled to yield to England in 
all matters connected with the choice of a ministry, 
and this necessarily results in a partizan cabinet 
acceptable to London. On occasions when the khe- 
dive has appointed a cabinet officer without first 
securing the consent of England, he has been 
promptly called to account, and the menacing dis- 
play in the streets of his capital of thousands of 
British guns and bayonets has not abated until the 
office has been filled by an Egyptian practically 
named by the British government. 

The real business of important executive depart- 
ments in Cairo is directed by the under-secretaries 
(assistant ministers), who are English, and their 
utterances and plans formally receive the sanction 

324 













AT THE BASE Ui-' ClIEUPS, 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

of their Egyptian chiefs. The native minister is 
the visible and signatory power, the creative and 
actual force being the English assistant. Every- 
thing financial is dictated by an "adviser," as is 
nearly everything judicial, and these functionaries 
are British. Similarly, the ministry of the interior, 
presided over by the educated and capable Egyp- 
tian premier, is also largely directed by an " ad- 
viser." 

Lord Cromer is proud of the British assistants 
who have cooperated with him in the work of re- 
habilitating Egypt, and especially pleased to in- 
form inquirers that the work has been accomplished 
by a body of officials not exceeding one hundred 
in number — a record that we in America, new to 
colonial administration, will do well to consider. 
An interesting example of the way in which 
English officials seek to carry the Egyptians with 
them is afforded by some recently announced sta- 
tistics. In the finance ministry, under the strictest 
British tutelage, 13 English and 513 natives are 
employed ; in the department of the interior, dic- 
tated by British rule, 62 English and 784 Egyp- 
tians find employment. In the offices under inter- 
national control the percentage of Britishers is very 
small. For example, the staff of the mixed courts 
consists of 242 Europeans (of whom 17 are British) 
and 101 Egyptians. The Caisse de la Dette em- 
ploys 50 Europeans (2 being British) and 10 
Egyptians, and the quarantine board has 48 Euro- 
pean and 19 native employees. 

Each year sees a slight augmentation of English- 

327 



Present-Day Egypt 

men on the Egyptian pay-roll, but always in re- 
sponsible positions. It is true that one Englishman 
can perform the work of two native clerks, but he 
gets usually the pay that would go to three. There 
are more Frenchmen, Syrians, and Italians em- 
ployed by the Egyptian government than English, 
probably. Most foreigners in the Egyptian service 
are lavishly paid, wholly from the Egyptian ex- 
chequer. The salary of an " adviser " is about ten 
thousand dollars a year, and under-secretaries re- 
ceive seventy-five hundred dollars. 

Twenty-three years is a considerable lapse of 
time anywhere; in the East, where people ma- 
ture at an early age, it represents a generation. 
Those who were children in the year of the bom- 
bardment are now in the prime of their lives, and 
England has had ample time to fit them for fair 
administrative work; yet she has done so only 
in small measure. 

Uninfluenced by political motive, the schools 
of the American Presbyterian Mission have done 
tenfold more for the cause of education and the 
spread of the English language in Egypt than has 
Grreat Britain. These schools, upward of a hun- 
dred in number, are distributed throughout the 
country, and are yearly elevating thousands of 
youths to a better condition, teaching them in par- 
ticular the value of order and system. At Cairo, 
Alexandria, Mansurah, Luxor, and many other 
places, these schools for years have done a noble 
work, and thousands of Egyptians of both sexes 
owe their well-being to the unselfish devotion of 

328 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

the men and women teachers of the American 
Mission. The college of the Mission at Assiut, long 
presided over by the Rev. Dr. Alexander, is a model 
institution whose standard of education has few 
rivals in the Turkish dominions. 

Since England has done but little to develop a 
class that may in time take the positions now filled 
by her own countrymen, Anglophobe critics point 
to this as confirmatory evidence of the insincerity 
of the statement that England ever intends the 
Egyptians to take the helm of state. 

A flagrant error of British administration, until 
six years ago, was the omission to introduce the 
English language. Egypt is a polyglot country, 
and the incorporation of English as an official 
language might with propriety have followed 
the introduction of the present system of affairs. 
French, consequently, remains the only European 
language known to any extent by the educated na- 
tives ; and where there is one Egyptian who knows 
English, forty who read and write French can be 
found. Only one of the khedive's ministers knows a 
word of English, yet all six are proficient in French. 

The official language of the government has been 
French for many years. Official publications and 
correspondence are in French. It is the European 
language of the railways and postal department. 
Postage-stamps, rail way- tickets, and telegraph 
forms, actually printed in England, express their 
values and conditions in French and Arabic. Eng- 
lish employees in governmental bureaus write offi- 
cially to one another in French, frequently to the 

329 



Present-Day Egypt 

confusion of the ideas intended to be expressed. 
An entire department, having charge of museums 
and the conservation of antiquities, employing 
thousands of natives, is exclusively French in ad- 
ministration, although supported in great measure 
by English-speaking visitors. So long as the Euro- 
pean language of the Egyptian official remains 
French, his mode of thought and action will be 
French also. 

In Cairo and Alexandria as many as ten newspa- 
pers are printed in the French language, purveying 
opinion bitterly hostile to the occupation. One of 
these, published at the capital, printed daily for 
years in display-type a list of Great Britain's bro- 
ken pledges in connection with the occupation, quot- 
ing from Blue Books and like documents such 
extracts as appeared to prove its case. Only one 
English journal is published, and that is forced to 
print its news and editorials in French as well as 
English to secure remunerative circulation. 

All the journals printed in French are antago- 
nistic to British rule, and being regarded by thou- 
sands as oracles, their influence is far-reaching. 
From their columns European opinion favorable to 
the anti-English cause is translated into Arabic by 
native journalists, who read French and know not 
a word of English, and finds currency in the native 
papers penetrating every village. Public measures 
are acrimoniously reviewed and made to appear to 
the native reader as added evils, and any reform 
introduced by England can have its merits so dis- 
torted as to be always regarded by the common 

33^ 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

people as absurd or tyrannical. This is a conspicu- 
ous reason why England's work in Egypt has never 
been popular with the masses. 

Six years ago two hundred and fifty- six stu- 
dents from governmental schools presented them- 
selves in Cairo for examination, prior to receiving 
diplomas. Each had to undergo examination in a 
European language, chosen with a view to equip- 
ping himself for a career of usefulness. Although 
the British had long dominated their country, and 
with every indication that they would never retire, 
only fifty-five of these students had acquired Eng- 
lish ; all the others, seventy-eight per cent, of the 
whole, had learned French. Paraded far and wide 
by French opponents of English influence, the 
preponderance of students learning French was 
brought home to those guiding British policy in 
Egypt, and attention was immediately directed to 
promoting the study of English in governmental 
schools. The Egyptian father being not slow to 
catch an idea that concerns his welfare, the desire 
to learn English suddenly became almost epidemic 
with native lads. That they were encouraged in 
this is proved by the fact that four years since 
the percentage of pupils in governmental schools 
studying English was sixty-seven, against thirty- 
three learning French. 

From the time of Mehemet Ali the traditions and 
sympathies of the people of Egypt have been essen- 
tially French, and it has long been the policy of the 
French government to encourage Egyptian youths 
to enter their educational establishments ; the mat- 



Present-Day Egypt 

ter of compensation has ever been a nominal con- 
sideration. 

English has never been made an official language 
of the international courts of Egypt, yet advocates 
therein can plead in Italian, French, and Arabic the 
principles of the Code Napoleon. Steps are now 
being taken, however, to have English placed on 
the list of official languages for pleadings, with 
every prospect of securing the assent of a majority 
of the governments interested in the courts. The 
United States will, obviously, assist the movement. 
A beginning has been made within a few months 
by the admission of legal documents in English, 
and by the appointment of several registrars who 
understand English. Still England cannot hope to 
rival France in legal matters in Egypt for many 
years to come, for every young Egyptian aspiring 
to the profession of law qualifies therefor at the 
Cairo School of Law, maintained by the French 
government, and takes his degree in France. 

All these conditions, by which France has been 
hourly in evidence, to the almost total effacement 
of England, have contributed to the bewilderment 
of the minds of the natives. British trade follows 
the British flag, but British opinion never follows 
the French language, surely. 

The administrative blunder of the English in not 
bringing in their language with the beginning of 
their intelligent reforms is half responsible for the 
unpopularity of the occupation, whose benefits 
would surely be obliterated and forgotten six 
months after the departure of the last British 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

functionary. This is one of the best reasons given 
by Englishmen why the occupation should not be 
terminated, and any member of the so-called anti- 
English party in Egypt, if asked for his opinion, 
would assert that the omission to introduce the 
English language into his country was a triumph 
of statecraft, and not a blunder thereof. " Having 
no intention of going, the Britishers want an ex- 
cuse, even a lame one, for remaining ; and the in- 
fluence of the Anglophobe press, which they 
purposely refrain from counteracting, creates one," 
this critic would say. Travelers have long known 
that it was a part of Britain's policy in India to 
allow native discontent to vent itself through the 
local press. It relieves the Indian grumbler, and 
does not hurt the English official. 
• Is Egypt capable of self-government ? 

The candor prompting one, after long and dis- 
interested study of Egyptian matters in the country 
itself, to say that England has performed her self- 
appointed task better than any other nation could 
have performed it, likewise compels one to state 
frankly that Egypt is not capable of complete self- 
government at the present time, for she has no class 
of officials trained in the higher ranges of adminis- 
trative work. No other nation should ever be per- 
mitted to supplant England as administrator or 
" occupier," certainly. 

The khedive, in my opinion, is sufficiently earnest 
and competent to guide an enlightened policy for 
carrying on the affairs of his country without 
any European intervention. He would have at his 

335 



Present-Day Egypt 

command a group of progressive men like Ti- 
grane, Boutros, Mustapha Fehmy, Fakhry, Maz- 
loum, Cherif , and Yakoub Artin, each qualified to 
render excellent service as an independent minister. 
As in times prior to the coming of the English, the 
khedival government could employ expert or tech- 
nical assistants of any nationality it chose. Ameri- 
can military officers, before England's assumption 
of power, gave Egypt as good an army as it ever 
had. British and other irrigationists and engineers 
having services to sell should be as willing to labor 
for Egypt as a self-governing administration as 
they are under a regime upheld by British soldiers. 
In this way perhaps the prerogatives of the khedive 
might be restored, and the " running shriek of de- 
nunciation " of the army of occupation be silenced. 
Egypt might, and might not, prosper under these 
changed conditions. But there is little likelihood 
of her being permitted to try the experiment, what- 
ever her right, and " Egypt for the Egyptians " must 
remain, in all probability, a sentimental illusion. 
The khedive has the undoubted right to govern his 
country, subject only to his imperial sovereign at 
Constantinople, at least until it is demonstrated 
that he is incapable. It is no reckless hazard, 
however, to predict that a dozen years hence all 
that portion of the Nile valley from the Mediter- 
ranean to Khartum and farther south will be rep- 
resented in school-books as a pendant from Britain's 
red girdle of the globe. How it is to be accom- 
plished, legally and morally, is a matter regarding 
which I can record no conjecture. In time some- 



Britain's Position in Egypt 

thing may " turn up " helpful to the legal aspect of 
England's position in Egypt. 

To get rid of the present anomalous position, a 
great many people in the British Isles and else- 
where would be glad if diplomatic fictions could be 
brushed away, and the whole of the territory tribu- 
tary to the Nile openly declared to be a portion of 
King Edward's empire. But at present the British 
government thinks it wiser to make sure of the sub- 
stance than to pay attention to shadowy phrases. 
British withdrawal would be an act of justice to 
sultan and khedive, but would serve no other 
legitimate interest. To annex Egypt, as France 
did Madagascar, would probably stir up animosities 
resulting in war. 

The masterly victory of Turkish troops in the 
Grreek war was a blow to Englishmen and others 
who believed the disintegration of the Ottoman em- 
pire to be near at hand. They had already ex- 
perienced a set-back when the Armenian disorders 
failed to shake the Sultan's throne, and the result 
of the Greco-Turkish war caused a painful awaken- 
ing as to the true state of the health of the " Sick 
Man of Europe." A break-up of the Sultan's empire 
may come in time, and Egypt fall to England, and 
Syria to France, in the general parceling out of 
Turkish possessions. But the " Sick Man " keeps 
such watchful attention on the Bosporus that the 
scramble for Ottoman territory may be postponed 
for many a long year. 



337 



CHAPTER XI 

AN EGYPTIAN NIGHT'S ENTERTAINMENT 

AN Ababdeh is religious, according to his views, 
J^X_ of course, for he is of the faithful ; but whe- 
ther he deserves the odium implied in the Arabic 
saying that stamps this or that " as worthless as 
an Ababdeh," no superficial observer can tell. As 
camel-traders the Ababdehs can certainly give 
points to horse-dealers of the West. Bravery alone 
entitles the Ababdeh to a high place among the 
peoples of the desert, and he holds personal courage 
above all other virtues. 

Like all Bedouins, they deem dwellers in 
towns, and soldiers of khedive or king, as human 
beings in a degrading state of bondage. Free and 
untrammeled, nature's finest product is himself, the 
Ababdeh, and he is happiest when within the boun- 
daries of that section of the great eastern desert 
acknowledged by Berberin, Bischarin, and Haden- 
dowah as the undisputed country of the Ababdeh 
tribes. 

These rovers have an inherited contempt for 
the fellaheen tillers and water-hoisters of the Nile 
bank ; and did not necessity compel them to load 
their caravans in that entrepot of the sea, Kosseir, 

338 




BISCHARINS IN UPPER EGYPT. 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

and discharge their bags of senna and charcoal, 
and bales of precious stuffs and carpets brought 
overland from Arabia, at Keneh, Luxor, and As- 
suan, the towns of the Red Sea and of Upper 
Egypt would know little of them. They rarely 
cross the Nile, and cross the Red Sea only when 
making the pilgrimage to Mecca. In the life of the 
prophet, camel-driver and nomad, they find much 
to satisfy them with their manner of living. 

The desertcraft of the Ababdehs is best known 
to travelers courageous enough to journey from 
Luxor or Keneh eastward to the sea-coast by camel- 
train, or scour the hinterland of the Red Sea for 
big game. On occasions these Bedouins enter 
towns to compete in the sports of a market-day 
fantasia, bringing fleet camels, trained like them- 
selves, to travel from sea to river with incredible 
swiftness, while subsisting on a diet meager in the 
extreme. The setting sun, however, sees them 
scurrying back to their camps, in the neighbor- 
hood of oases created by the occasional wells that 
make the overland journey possible. Beasts are 
sustained at these camping-places by the sparse 
vegetation, while a handful or two of dates give 
sustenance to the cameleers. Occasionally an 
over-inquisitive gazelle falls to the marksmanship 
of a watchful Ababdeh, and the evening feast is 
enjoyed by wayfarers fortunate enough to be in 
the vicinity. 

The Ababdehs' sheik, their absolute master, is 
the intermediary between the tribe and the khe- 
dival government, pledging at Cairo the good be- 



Present-Day Egypt 

havior of his people for a yearly grant of money. 
It is agreed that his tribe will aid the Egyptian 
army in case of need, serve as watchmen along the 
embankments when the great river is in flood, and 
be generally loyal to Khedive Abbas. Still, it 
is not recorded that an Ababdeh has ever been 
called upon to serve in the khedival army, although 
groups of them frequently slip into Assuan with a 
string of saddle-camels, which they sell for a goodly 
price to the purchasing agent of the army. 

The annual Bairam gathering near Assuan de- 
cides the fate of many a cameleer and herdsman 
aspiring to the favor of some dusky belle of the 
tribe, for success nearly always comes to the swain 
there publicly exhibiting indifference to pain. To 
participate in the courage- dance, perhaps, has been 
his loftiest ambition since discovering his heart's 
inclination in a definite direction. The courage- 
dance is the predominating feature of the assem- 
blage, witnessed by Ababdehs who may have come 
hundreds of miles over burning wastes of sand. 

The crescent moon of the month of Shawal — a 
few years since coincident with our month of 
March — saw gathered a very picturesque group 
of happy followers of Mohammed. Ramadan had 
given way to the wildest feasting and frolicking. 
In the town could be seen every grade and class of 
Upper Egypt's and Nubia's medley of people: 
desert folk, farmers from Dongola, boatmen from 
Wady- Haifa, amphibious mortals who swim the 
Shelal rapids for bakshish, lordly Bischarins of 
classic features, Sudanese of every shade of black 

342 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

and brown — all were there, each as important in 
that season of festivity as the mudir of a prov- 
ince, or a prince dwelling in a palace. It was surely 
a strange picture of the African races, to be seen 
only at the first cataract of the Nile, where Egypt 
blends with Nubia. 

Tourist-laden steamers and dahabiyehs fringed 
the river, and late in the afternoon the hills echoed 
the chant of oarsmen returning with sight-seers 
who had lunched amid Philse's ruins. The under- 
governor of Nubia, with whom hospitality was a 
ready impulse, although not within his official do- 
main, thought to organize a unique entertain- 
ment ; he had actors and spectators at hand, and 
Westerners, he believed, would enjoy witnessing 
one of the strangest ceremonials of the African 
continent. 

The under-governor knew that the Ababdehs' 
courage-dance was to be performed that night. 

"Delighted to accept," was the substance of 
every response. 

" Saddle-camels will be ready at eight on the 
Nile bank," was the instruction verbally delivered 
by the official's secretary. 

At eight o'clock they were there, ten splendid 
camels, commanded by an army bimbashi in khaki 
and medals. Some of the animals had saddles with 
stirrups, suggesting Britain's control of things mili- 
tary in Egypt, while others bore the elaborate seats 
and trappings of the East, tasseled and ornamented, 
like camels in Schreyer paintings. 

To tourists unaccustomed to a grandeur beyond 

343 



Present-Day Egypt 

the lowly victoria or accommodating street-car, 
the backs of the camels appeared mountain-high. 

" Talla-henna ! " commanded the bimbashi, and 
the camels knelt at his feet, modifying marvelously 
the difficulty of climbing into the saddles, in which 
operation the men followed where women dared to 
lead. Then, with a mighty convulsion, the animals 
attained hindmost elevation, and, unfolding their 
fore legs, were so suddenly erect that the double 
upheaval had passed before the perils of the situa- 
tion could be grasped by the feminine mind. 

The cavalcade then was ready to journey into 
the unknown. 

In the purpling half-light following the tropical 
sunset, the strange procession moved eastward 
through the streets of Assuan, headed by the 
under-governor and the bimbashi. Noiselessly 
the camels stalked the narrow avenues, deigning 
now and then to divert their course to let a clat- 
tering donkey pass. There was rejoicing on every 
hand among Moslems, and before many abodes 
the Koran was being read, while refreshments 
were proffered to all wayfarers. Here and there 
were met straggling tourists, some wearing sun- 
helmets and pugrees fresh from New Bond Street, 
returning to their hotels from moderate explora- 
tions in the desert. 

Quitting Assuan's street leading to the desert, 
the spectral cavalcade passed among the huts of 
the Bischarins, then crossed the remains of the 
ancient quarry from which the Ptolemies procured 
their huge monoliths, and finally skirted the tombs 

344 



An Egyptian Night's Entertianment 

where sleep many Egyptian saints. Like weird 
marauders the camels then picked their way 
through a labyrinth of tombs in a vast city of the 
dead. 

Fairly in the open desert, the faint moon lighted 
the procession toward a surging, swaying mass, 
now discernible, near which stood a long, low 
building, sheltered here and there by palms. The 
swaying mass was composed of five hundred Abab- 
dehs, excitedly chanting praises to Allah, as they 
danced in a great circle moving incessantly from 
left to right. With white turbans framing uplifted 
ebon faces, and arms holding aloft curved palm- 
stalks, and bodies enveloped in flowing garments of 
white, their ebullition of joy seemed irrepressible. 
To the faithful the moon of Shawal presages suc- 
cess to the sword of the prophet. 

Absorbed wholly in their weird fantasy, the 
dancers cared nothing for the approach of the 
cavalcade. With a dignity befitting a mighty 
potentate, however, the sheik received the ex- 
pected visitors at the portal, and led them to seats 
within. Half the structure was roofed and had a 
floor of marble squares, forming a platform of spa- 
cious dimensions. Lanterns made the compound 
light as day, and illumined the forms of two or 
three score of Bedouin lads and maidens grouped 
about the open portion with faces intently directed 
stageward. A conventional table of civilization 
bore bottled stimulants that the simple hosts be- 
lieved essential to the entertainment of Europeans, 
but which the Koran forbids to Mohammedans. In 

345 



Present-Day Egypt 

front of the guests squatted the musicians in a 
semicircle, extracting an unconscionable amount 
of noise from cocoanut-bowled stringed instru- 
ments, crude tambourines, and tom-toms. The re- 
quired "time" was imparted by a patriarchal 
native, who, by rhythmically moving a piece of 
iron like a shuttle between empty bottles, pro- 
duced a cadence almost mechanically exact. 

Before the sheik and those of his visitors who 
were Moslems had completed their exchange of sa- 
laams and the sprinkling of much of the imaginary 
dust of humility on their brows, the orchestra 
broke into an allegro movement that set the im- 
patient Bedouins moving in a manner indicating 
their wish for the function to begin. 

To a tall and very black girl the music was im- 
pelling, and with a spring she cleared the smoking 
lamp footlights, and in a twinkling was in front of 
the musicians, her giant frame vibrating in the 
tumultuous undulations of a dance — but not the 
dance the sheik wished his distinguished guests 
to witness. It was the dance of the Keneh Gha- 
wazi, manifestly not on the program. Excitement 
rendered her deaf to the calls of friends, and 
blind to the sheik's frowns. She had the floor, 
and was aware of it ; but a significant movement 
of her hands to the upper portion of her one-piece 
costume, in the height of her frenzied abandon, 
caused the sheik's assistants to bundle her out of 
sight while still fully clad. 

" She 's no Ababdeh," was the under-governor's 
explanation ; " she 's a Berber, and has no business 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

here. She hopes to win the favor of some Abab- 
deh youth and marry into the tribe. But none will 
take a wife outside his people, so she will have to 
seek elsewhere." 

A young girl advanced to the center of the plat- 
form, and the interloper was forgotten. She was 
the Ababdeh premiere danseiise, fascinating, grace- 
ful, and famed throughout every mile of desert 
where her race ventured. Her garb of clinging 
stuff, falling from shoulders and hips, marked a 
graceful contour. Eyes, lips, every feature was 
perfect, although she was very dark. Judged by 
any standard this maid was beautiful, and no 
queen of the stage could have a reception more 
appreciative. 

The musicians ran rapidly through a prelude, 
and, stamping her slippered feet on the floor in the 
imperious manner of Otero, the popular Medina 
was ready. With her whole soul and body she 
appeared to keep time with the music, turning 
from right to left with gradually increasing rapid- 
ity, and bending backward until her spine was in 
danger of dislocation. She began then to turn 
with such amazing rapidity that to the onlookers 
she seemed a strange fantasy of whirling hair 
and inverted features. This was the obvious crux 
of the performance, for bimbashi and finance-office 
bey marked their admiration by excitedly circling 
around the whirling girl and cracking their fingers 
like castanets above her head. 

Round and round the girl spun, bending farther 
backward until her tresses swept the ground. The 

349 



Present-Day Egypt 

shouts of the Bedouins then grew deafening, and 
for fully ten minutes, while the girl was revolving 
with the speed of a humming-top, the enthusiasm 
was indescribable. The instruments with diffi- 
culty kept pace with the gyrating performer, and 
sheik, beys, effendis, every one having a drop of 
Egyptian blood, joined in castaneting. Medina, 
with head nearly touching the heels of her slip- 
pers, was by this time revolving at a speed that 
made the air hot. 

Without warning the music stopped; every in- 
strument save a tom-tom was instantly hushed, 
and the contortion of Medina ceased with it. Her 
collapse was complete. Mentally intoxicated, she 
lay in a disheveled, confused heap on the floor. 
Throughout the building silence reigned, save the 
subdued dirge on the tom-tom. An attendant, 
perhaps the girl's mother, broke through the ring 
of onlookers, and carried the comatose creature to 
a couch of palm-branches at the rear of the plat- 
form. In a short time she had recovered. The 
divan became then a throne, at the foot of which 
admiring Egyptians paid their tribute of praise. 

Could it be called dancing, this performance 
where the feet were never lifted, and moved in a 
space measured by inches? As an acrobatic 
achievement it certainly was marvelous. 

Medina's effort left the audience expectant for 
the courage-dance. The young men and women 
squatting on the ground, who had permitted the 
entertainment to assume features of a "show," 
could not be expected longer to conceal their im- 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

patience. Some had waited months and walked 
hundreds of miles for the Bairam celebration, and 
it was to them a matter of the greatest impor- 
tance. Briefly stated, it was their matrimonial 
tournament; and the maiden of the desert was 
created with a heart differing little, probably, from 
the belle of Fifth Avenue or Mayfair, while en- 
vironment, it must be assumed, controls the ardor 
of no swain. 

Eight Ababdeh braves were at last on the plat- 
form ; each was smiling, agile, sinewy, and prepared 
to do or die. None was more than eighteen, and 
each was a perfect example of healthy manhood. 
Their legs, possessing not an atom of superfluous 
flesh, looked like burnished bronze. All were clad 
in white gelabiehs and turbans, and wore the con- 
ventional red slippers of the Sudan. 

While the thrumming of instruments was going 
on, a Bedouin, wearing the green head-dress of a 
hadji, pressed through the audience and took posi- 
tion on the platform. He was a petty sheik of the 
Ababdehs and carried a whip of dried rhinoceros 
hide five feet or more in length. This cruel in- 
strument, leaving its mark upon man or beast with 
every blow, is the kourbash, painfully familiar in 
nearly every story of Eastern life. Natives of 
Egypt and the Sudan were governed by it for 
generations, and until comparatively recent times 
taxes were paid only to escape its fury. 

A wild volley came now from the instruments 
— sound without melody, but acutely cadenced. 
The man with the kourbash was vaulting into the 



Present-Day Egypt 

air, gyrating rapidly, while excitedly flourishing 
his whip. Springing into the air in time with the 
music, like mechanical toys, the youths swiftly 
circled around the vaulting man, but moving in 
the opposite direction. Now and again an excla- 
mation of savage delight escaped the lips of a 
dancer, or a word of encouragement was called 
from the audience. The music changed to a 
lower key, and, with kourbash held high, the 
vaultings of the central figure ceased, and the man 
motioned as if to flay a particular youth in the 
circle. 

"With every sense and muscle keenly alert, each 
participant regarded the manipulator of the lash 
as a fencer watches the eye of his opponent, and 
it was readily apparent to the visitors that the 
courage-dance portion of the program was of 
serious intent, as different from what had preceded 
it as war is from masquerading. 

The movement of the dancers slackened with 
the music. The menacing thong appeared ready 
to descend upon a lad whose gaze had been riveted 
for some seconds by the leader, when, by a dex- 
terous movement, the giant whirled on his heel, 
and the blow fell upon a performer who little ex- 
pected it. 

Terribly realistic was the cut, and a line of 
crimson played along the back of the boy's gela- 
bieh from shoulder to hip. Not a lineament of 
his countenance altered, nor in any manner was 
there expression of pain following the blow, de- 
livered with the full strength of the flagellant. A 




:.'^'TafcJs;c:?t:ii'£S^^g»«giMia«rfgj^^ 



AV()OD-'\VOKKKRS. 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

nervous quivering, even a suggestion of flinching, 
would have been observed with disapproval by 
every critical Ababdeh, and certainly by the maiden 
whom he hoped to win by his stoical courage. 

Again the dancers ckcled around their stalwart 
tribesman, moving this time in the opposite direc- 
tion to that of the opening " figure." More spirit 
was imparted to the music, and the lash, as before, 
buried itself in the flesh of one dancer, then an- 
other, and another, as varied the whim of the 
man. Each lad sought to concentrate his gaze 
upon the face of the towering petty sheik, but 
when the rawhide descended it was always upon 
the flesh of a performer unprepared for it. 

A regrettable display of shrinking from the ruth- 
less lash by one of the dancers came at last, 
however. It must have been the muscular mani- 
festation of the impulse of self-preservation that 
caused this Ababdeh to move slightly, barely 
perceptibly, when he saw the rhinoceros thong 
descending. It was a tremor of face, and a move- 
ment of body of but an inch or two. Then, in the 
minutest part of a second, he was himself again, 
and he received the blow as courageously as he 
would have met wild animal or human foe in the 
desert. But bitter chagrin was his, for the rules 
of the courage-dance are inexorable. 

To have Abdullah All's matrimonial aspirations 
and his standing among people of his kind suffer 
from so trifling a cause seemed an unjust penalty. 
He was not disgraced permanently, as he would 
have been had he shown the white feather by 

355 



Present-Day Egypt 

evading the blow ; for this the punishment would 
be to be scorned as a craven. It might take two 
or three years to live down the fault of that night, 
perhaps, but, with Allah's help, he would strive to 
rehabilitate himself the following Bairam. Bis- 
millaJi ! 

The flagellant now is a powerful fellow from the 
Eed Sea region, reputed well-to-do, as a result of 
government contracts for camels. His cunning in 
catching a dancer off his guard is remarkable. A 
palpable wince followed the very first fall of the 
whip among the second group of youths, to the 
mortification of a good-looking cameleer, who, 
although receiving his share of punishment in a 
style in keeping with the highest precepts of tribal 
ethics, wore a dejected look throughout the re- 
mainder of the figure. All the rest were perfect 
in their display of courage, and doubtless were made 
happy husbands at the Glreat Bairam, forty days 
later, simultaneous with the ceremonial at the 
tomb of the prophet, and to-day may be posses- 
sors, with their dusky consorts, of camels, goats, 
and a supreme contempt for the ways of men 
dwelling in cities. 

Thus the entertainment proceeded, until the 
body of every dancer was veined with stripes. Not 
one had given evidence of pain, however trifling, 
and the faces of all, save Abdullah All's and two or 
three others, seemed molded in beatific lines, for 
tilting knights in heroic times could not have won 
more sincere favor of women. 

In its gruesome aspect the exhibition was natu- 



An Egyptian Night's Entertainment 

rally nerve-trying to the visitors. The ladies, espe- 
cially, wished they had been warned of what the 
courage-dance was like; but the under-governor 
pleaded with them not to evince disapproval at 
what they were viewing, for this would be con- 
strued disagreeably by the Ababdehs. The sheik 
early in the evening had said somethiug to the 
under-governor, which, translated by that worthy, 
proved to be a reasonably accurate paraphrase of 
the maxim of doing in Eome what the Romans do. 
"Besides," pleaded the under-governor, in his 
efforts to pacify the young lady from Colorado, 
" the kourbash inflicts little pain, however profuse 
the flow of blood." 

The sheik and his high brethren accepted with 
splendid dignity the thanks and farewells of the 
visitors like noblemen of the desert— and their 
shibboleths are as unmistakable as those of other 
gentlemen the world over. 

It was, surely, a strange Egyptian night's enter- 
tainment. 



357 



CHAPTER XII 

WINTERING IN EGYPT FOE HEALTH'S SAKE 

IN consequence of the warm and cliemically pure 
atmosphere, Cairo and Upper Egypt offer an 
ideal climate for persons suffering from consump- 
tion, anemia, asthma, and rheumatism, as well as 
for those convalescing from illnesses. The climate 
is dry and tonic throughout the year, and during 
the season when travelers are there— from Novem- 
ber to the end of March— these characteristics are 
more observable than in summer. Violent varia- 
tions of temperature are unknown, and sunshine 
prevails even to monotony. It may truthfully be 
said that the Nile valley is as bountiful in rest and 
recreation to the invalid as in matchless sights to 
the tourist. That the natural conditions will suit 
all health-seekers would be a statement too com- 
prehensive for a lay writer to venture. But the 
ailments that would be benefited by a winter passed 
rationally on the banks of the Nile greatly out- 
number those that would not. The word " miasma " 
has no place in the vocabulary of Cairo or Upper 
Egypt. 

The annual rainfall in Cairo is scarcely more than 
an inch and a half. This means, perhaps, but three 

358 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

or four rainy days during a winter. At Mena 
House and Helouan the rainfall is generally less 
than in the capital, while at Luxor and Assuan a 
shower is regarded by the natives as a wonder of 
nature. Alexandria and other places on the Medi- 
terranean do not share the general immunity of 
the rest of the country from storms. Cairo's mean 
temperature for November, December, January, 
and February is about 62° F., as compared with 63° 
at Orotava, 61° at Madeira, and 49° at Nice and 
Mentone. Egypt is the winterland par excellence. 

On the coldest days in Cairo the thermometer 
never falls below 34°, and this degree of frigidity 
occurs only at long intervals. Some Cairenes re- 
call a slight snowfall a half -century ago, and a thin 
film of ice on pools in the suburbs may be seen sev- 
eral times in the average winter. This is caused 
by the desert influence on the early morning air, 
and is of short duration after sunrise. The cool 
nights of winter give the air much of its stimulat- 
ing property; and in summer, however hot the 
days, the nights are nearly always made comfor- 
table by cooling breezes from the desert. 

The Egyptian year has but two seasons, summer 
and winter. The period of warm weather lasts eight 
or nine months, while winter is confined practically 
to the months of December, January, and Febru- 
ary. It is only in July, August, and September that 
the heat is intense ; the rest of the year is climati- 
cally agreeable. When the Nile is high, in the 
autumn, there is at times sufficient humidity to 
cause some discomfort, especially when the humid- 

" 359 



Present-Day Egypt 

ity is combined with a run of abnormally warm 
weather. The period of comparatively cold weather, 
six weeks at most, commences early in January. 
From April until the end of June the increase of 
heat is gradual, the maximum being reached usu- 
ally by July 1; but in some years the highest 
temperature is not recorded until August or Sep- 
tember. The so-called khamsin period sets in by 
the middle of February, with its parching desert 
winds, freighted with impalpable particles of sand 
that cannot be excluded by door or window. Wher- 
ever air has access, there the khamsin leaves its 
layer of dust. The word " khamsin " is Arabic for 
" fifty," and the belief is that this is the number of 
days prior to the summer solstice when the scorch- 
ing winds are liable to occur. A khamsin generally 
lasts two days, but a season seldom sees more than 
eight or ten days of these sand-storms. It is no- 
thing to be dreaded, beyond making it desirable to 
remain indoors during its prevalence. Sufferers 
from certain forms of asthma even profess to enjoy 
a khamsin day. 

It is difficult to believe that the country's in- 
creased canalization and the added area of vege- 
tation are contributing to a diminution of the 
frequency and force of the khamsin, when one real- 
izes the overwhelming expanse of desert in which 
these winds have uninterrupted play. Like the 
severity of New England winters, the force of the 
khamsin in the Nile valley has manifestly been mod- 
ified in recent years. Those who wrote of Egypt a 
hundred or even fifty years ago emphasized their 

360 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

descriptions of the horrors of this hot wind. If the 
contemporary development of Egypt is in any way 
affecting the blowing of the khamsin, as many 
claim, then the British are responsible for a benefit 
heretofore overlooked by their championing press. 
Alexandrian boatmen, a few years ago, in enumer- 
ating their reasons for not favoring the English 
occupation of their country, would claim that fish- 
ing had become impossible in certain parts of the 
harbor. " The fish no longer bite since the British 
came," they would say. This serious charge, if 
challenged, would lead to the explanation that the 
debris gathered after the bombardment of 1882, in- 
cluding hundreds of tons of mortar and plaster, 
was dumped into the sea at points where naviga- 
tion would not be impeded, and that the lime 
drove the fish away, never to return. This is a 
fact. 

If it is believed that Cairo presents too many se- 
ductive dissipations for the health- seeker, Mena 
House, at the foot of the Pyramids, has much to 
offer to those needing rest with nerve-toning sur- 
roundings, and especially those having weak lungs. 
The neighborhood itself possesses enough to keep 
the mind profitably employed for weeks ; for tow- 
ering over Mena House are the Pyramids of Grizeh 
—in fact, the hotel is built with material removed 
from titanic Cheops, though it is scarcely missed 
from the king of pyramids. Close by is the Sphinx, 
as mysterious to the present-day person pursuing 
a rest-cure as it was to Napoleon on the occasion 
of his midnight invocation, or to Herodotus, or the 

3^3 



Present-Day Egypt 

great Eameses, or Menes himself, nerve-resting in 
its inscrutability. 

The excursion to Sakkarah and Memphis is more 
easily made from Mena than from Cairo, and the 
choice of conveyances ranges from camels to broad- 
wheeled " sand-carts." To the west of Mena is 
desert, stretching far and wide for thousands of 
miles, to Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco, terminating 
only when the Atlantic Ocean is reached. To the 
east is the Nile valley, and Cairo ten miles away. 
Polo and shooting are every-day diversions. More 
interesting still is the ever-present opportunity to 
study the human species, from the lordly Bedouin 
sheik to the highly developed product of latter-day 
civilization in Europe, who, maybe, has success- 
fully "tooled" a four-in-hand coach all the way 
from Shepheard's, over a faultless road, to the Mena 
piazza. Of the two, judged physically, the brown 
son of the desert is the finer and better- visaged. 
" Happily possessed of a golfing-ground and a mar- 
ble swimming-bath, as well as a resident chaplain 
for the piously inclined, and a ' dark room ' for the 
ubiquitous photographer, what more," asks cynical 
Marie Corelli in her Egyptian novel " Ziska," quot- 
ing from the Mena House advertisement, " can the 
aspiring soul of the modern tourist desire ! " 

It surely is a far cry from invalidism to chicken 
incubators; but persons who have lolled away a 
winter at Mena can hardly expect to be invalids 
when February or March comes. By that time 
daily jaunts have taken the place of ph^^sicians' 
prescriptions. To these I can recommend nothing 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

more interesting than a visit to an " incubatory " 
in any one of the native villages in the neighbor- 
hood of the Pyramids. It will be found that the 
incubatory is constructed of sun-dried bricks, and 
so arranged internally that the eggs, placed in 
mud-constructed ovens on trays cushioned with cut 
straw, are constantly under the attendant's view. 
No scientific apparatus is employed by this man, 
not even a thermometer. He knows from expe- 
rience and his own feeling how much heat is 
needed, and he systematically turns the eggs sev- 
eral times each day until they are developed into 
peeping chicks. These hatching establishments 
exist throughout Middle and Upper Egypt, and in 
a season bring fully twenty million chickens into 
the world, that grow up to be scrawny, unattrac- 
tive fowls. The industry is thousands of years old, 
and seems conclusively to settle the question of a 
chicken's maternity by allocating that parentage 
to the hen laying the egg. The incubator is a 
foster-mother only, and is responsible for stifling 
the "setting" instinct with Egyptian hens. The 
keepers of the incubatories have a system of traffic 
with peasant farmers by which eggs are purchased 
outright, or six live chicks given in exchange for 
a dozen fresh eggs. 

Villa life, with quietude and health- giving air, is 
offered at Matarieh, six or eight miles to the east- 
ward of Cairo. Uninteresting itself, the village is 
surrounded by points of historical association in 
sufficient number to keep the attention of sojourn- 
ers occupied for a few weeks at least. The plain 

3^5 



Present-Day Egypt 

of Heliopolis, the Virgin's tree, and the locale of 
Kleber's victory over the Turkish legion, present 
possibilities of great scope to the reader of history. 
The ostrich-farm close by, and the neighboring 
khedival estate of Koubbeh, are objects of inter- 
est, as well. Matarieh has much to commend it to 
sufferers from incipient consumption and bronchial 
disorders. 

Singly or in combination, the springs and un- 
adulterated air of Helouan are believed by hosts of 
people to offer a complete cure for rheumatism and 
neuralgia. To the imagination of some folks, the 
odor of the j>lace is of a suggestive character, for, 
set in the middle of the desert, where sulphur- 
springs abound, the air smells strongly of brim- 
stone whichever way the wind blows. But this 
effect soon passes off, and to the neuralgic patient in 
particular, after a little time, the place appears a 
heaven. Helouan is a gem of a town set in a 
golden circle of sand, with a grand view of the river, 
and palm forests bounded by more desert and a 
number of pyramids in front of you ; and behind, 
the everlasting Mokattam Hills, that run from Cairo 
hundreds of miles southward, with a branch range 
extending to the Red Sea. To the left is the 
desert again, with a view of the pencil-proportioned 
minarets of the Mehemet Ali mosque in Cairo, 
fields of intensely verdant green, and beyond, the 
great silent form of the Cheops pyramid keep- 
ing watch over all. At Helouan are comfortable 
hotels, first-rate bath establishments with capable 
physicians in attendance, plenty of little white 

366 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

houses— many of them of bungalow design— in 
their little gardens, the whole enveloped in the 
driest, most exhilarating air you can dream of. 
The Romans, clever fellows as they were, knew the 
importance of Helouan, and built there grand 
houses and bathing-places, remains of which the 
visitor to-day may gaze upon. Did they have neu- 
ralgia or rheumatism ? Not for long, surely. The 
hills around Helonan contain many caverns to be 
explored, many sepnlchers to be discovered ; there 
are glorious walks — even the rheumatic can walk 
here — for those who like exercise, and shady groves 
of sweet- smelling acacia, verbena, and every flower 
that grows " in and out of season as the seasons 
go." For those who prefer rest, a good story-book, 
or a color-box and sketching-materials, are in 
order. And all this is little more than a half- 
hour's journey from the Egyptian metropolis! 
The medicinal advantages of Helouan, perhaps as 
potent as those of Aix-les-Bains, are known far 
afield, in England, France, Grermany, and even in 
Eussia. 

A district that should be better known to the 
seeker for health whose invalidism is not too pro- 
nounced is the Fayum, accessible from Cairo in 
two or three hours by slow railway-train. It has 
more natural beauty than any other place in Egypt, 
and is not inappropriately called the "rose-gar- 
den," If one would combine the pleasure of the 
artist with the quest of health, and be not too 
exacting in the matter of hotel comforts, I know of 
no place so fascinating and fruitful of subjects for 



Present-Day Egypt 

the sketch-book or camera as El Medineh, the 
capital town of the Fayum oasis. The journey 
from Cairo takes the traveler through the heart of 
the pyramid region, on the west bank of the Nile, 
affording opportunity for observing at close range 
nearly every pyramid of renown in the ancient 
necropolis. I am here tempted to incorporate a 
gem of a poem by Professor Clinton ScoUard, that 
sings the praises of the Fayum in graceful but 
unexaggerated language. 



THE ROSE OP FAYUM 

Could I pluck from the gardens of old 
The fairest of flowers to behold, 
And fashion a wreath for the shrine 
Of the Muses,— the deathless divine, — 
A garland I 'd weave from the bloom 
Of the redolent rose of Fayum. 

StUl the hills with their sun-smitten crest 
Tower barren and bold to the west, 
Stni slumbers the Lake of the Horns 
'Neath the glory of luminous morns ; 
Still is attared the glow and the gloom 
By the redolent rose of Fayum. 

Arsinoe's temples are prone. 
And scarce is there stone above stone 
Of the palace whose grandeur and girth 
"Was one of the wonders of earth ; 
But in triumph o'er time and the tomb 
Springs the redolent rose of Fayum. 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

The rose of to-day is a shoot, 
Like the song of a glorious root. 
Side by side, till the ages shall close, 
Go the love of the lute and the rose ; 
And my song I enlink with the bloom 
Of the redolent rose of Fayum. 

As health-stations, Luxor and Assuan, in Upper 
Egypt, have every recommendation, and are more 
and more appreciated each season by rheumatic 
and consumptive persons, and by healthy people in 
want of mental rest and physical recreation. To 
these an entire winter passed in either Luxor or 
Assuan, or divided between the two places, may 
lead to the return of mental energy and bodily 
health and vigor. These up-river places have the 
purest and driest air to be found in Egypt, being 
many degrees warmer than Cairo ; and fast steam- 
ers and all-rail connection with the capital being 
provided, they have sprung into a popularity not 
to be wondered at. Their visitors keep better 
hours, dance less frequently in overcrowded rooms, 
and take more rational exercise, than do fashion- 
able sojourners in Cairo. And besides, the daily 
ride on donkey-back, necessary in making excur- 
sions to view objects of interest, has a more bene- 
ficial effect upon inactive livers than any amount 
of driving in a Cairo victoria. 

Eain is rare in Upper Egypt, and the oldest in- 
habitant has no recollection of frost. There are no 
newspapers to disturb one's equanimity, no quo- 
tations of the stock exchange; yet the telegraph 



Present-Day Egypt 

brings Luxor and Assuan into intimate toncli with, 
the world. Luxor has good hotels, a small hospi- 
tal, and competent medical men. The Luxor Hotel 
is good enough to satisfy any reasonable person ; its 
gardens include hundreds of varieties of tropical 
plants and trees. If time presses, the journey to 
Cairo, four hundred and fifty miles, may be made 
by train in a day, but not with the comfort to be 
found on the steamers. In archaeological attrac- 
tions Luxor is without a peer. Karnak is admit- 
tedly unapproachable in grandeur and antiquarian 
interest, and the plain of Thebes rich with storied 
ruins. An excursion to the Tombs of the Kings, 
where the royal mummies rested for thousands of 
years previous to their transfer to Der el-Bahari, 
repays one for taxing strength and energy. From 
the moment of mounting your donkey on the Nile 
strand to the final dismount on the return, diminu- 
tive Egyptians, not overclad, keep pace with the 
animal throughout the day, demanding bakshish 
with smiling faces at every step— and it is a long 
and tortuous journey to the Tombs of the Kings. 
However resolute one may be not to give, and al- 
though your command to " imshil " has been sternly 
repeated a thousand times, you generally relent at 
the last moment, as the youngsters know you will, 
and shower your milliemes and half -piasters among 
the descendants of Mizraim. There is something 
consoling and stimulating to robust sightseer as 
well as to semi-invalid in this exercise of benevo- 
lence. 
From Luxor to Assuan is a short one hundred 

372 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

and thirty-five miles, yet the journey seemingly 
takes one into the heart of Africa. Assuan is the 
frontier of Egypt proper, the first cataract of the 
Nile being nature's indicated boundary, south of 
which is the limitless domain of Nubia and the 
Sudan— Egypt's territorial extension, so to speak. 
Assuan has many of the characteristics of frontier 
towns in other countries. One sees there the mili- 
tary side of the governmental administration, and 
discovers that martial rather than civil law is in 
force. The temperature is a few degrees higher 
than at Luxor, abbreviating the season of sojourn 
by a week or two, many travelers there meeting 
the tropical sun and moving northward with it. 
The roomy Assuan Hotel has culinary possibilities 
and material comforts in sufficient number to make 
one forget that its location almost borders on the 
tropic of Cancer. Lacking the unique antiquarian 
value of Luxor, perhaps, Assuan in these days pro- 
vides many compensating attractions. It is a cen- 
ter where strange-looking desert people congregate, 
whose dress and customs admit of no suspicion of 
being assumed for spectacular effect. Among 
members of the tribe of Bischarins may be seen boys 
and girls who would make the sculptor long to re- 
produce their classical features and graceful poses. 
If the trip to the island of Elephantine be disap- 
pointing, the excursion to Philse is wholly satisfy- 
ing, for there exists nothing more beautiful in the 
domain of ancient art. But the army of dam-em- 
ployees, engaged in a work meaning much for the 
country's progress, is destined so to alter nature at 

373 



Present-Day Egypt 

the cataract that Philae's charm must necessarily 
be impaired. The bazaar in Assuan is essentially 
African in character, and a mine of entertainment. 
If not an out-and-ont invalid, one is certain to 
go several times to Philse. I should urge the visitor 
to make at least one trip by donkey-back. In this 
way one can take in the quarries from which the 
ancient kings drew the colossal obelisks and stones 
for their stupendous structures. Great humps of 
rich red granite crop up through the tawny sand, 
and here and there are plain traces of the methods 
employed by these marvelous builders in work- 
ing and moving their blocks of material. A huge, 
nearly completed obelisk, as large as the one in 
New York or that in London, lies in situ as it 
was hewn from the solid rock, from which it has 
never been quite separated ; it still bears the inci- 
sions for fastening the ropes and pulleys by which 
it would have been dragged to the river, half a 
mile away. Its contour is perfectly outlined by 
rows of oblong holes for the insertion of blocks of 
soft wood, which would have been expanded by the 
application of water, breaking the monolith from 
the ledge with as much certainty as it could be 
accomplished to-day by explosives. The ancient 
stone- workers understood the simple secrets of 
natural forces, certainly. On the way back from 
Philas, if coming by boat, a dozen other places may 
be seen where vast pieces of granite have been 
broken out of ledge or boulder by the primitive trick 
of wetting confined blocks of porous wood. It is 
good for the moderate invalid to study the curious 

374 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

things about Assuan, and in tlie matter of the 
half- finished obehsk one will speculate why the 
work was stopped, whether there was a change in 
the dynasty, or if an appropriation gave out ; and 
it will do no harm, when studying the cartouches 
chiseled on the boulders along the river-bank, for 
the mind to endeavor to determine whether they 
are autographs or were cut by command of kings 
desirous of leaving an indelible impress of their 
reigns. 

Loiterers about Assuan must not be disappointed 
when told that the crocodile is no longer to be 
found within the tourist limits of the Nile. It will 
be but another illusion shattered, like the popular 
belief that the tailless Manx cats may be seen in 
the Isle of Man, or gray Maltese cats in Malta. 
Outside of a few princely gardens at Cairo not a 
stalk of the papyrus plant can be found nearer 
Egypt in these days than at Syracuse in Sicily; 
and more and better examples of the Egyptian lotus 
may be seen in August in the public fountain of 
Union Square in New York than a winter's search 
in Egypt will reveal. 

The evening songs of the Assuan boatmen are 
soothing to jaded nerves, and the invalid who can- 
not find peace and benefit at this delightful up- 
river station can hardly expect to regain health in 
Egypt. 

The health-seeker who desires to linger beyond 
the usual time for quitting Egypt in the spring or 
early summer may find comfort and stimulating 
sea-breezes at Ramleh, the Mediterranean suburb 

377 



Present-Day Egypt 

of Alexandria; but dry air must not, of course, 
be looked for there. It is, nevertheless, a de- 
servedly popular resort, with superb sea-bathing, 
and a temperature ten or fifteen degrees cooler than 
Cairo. 

I must caution my readers that my enthusiastic 
statements on the subject of the climatic charms of 
Egypt must not be accepted to mean that its mar- 
velous air and peaceful environment combine to 
offer a panacea for all ailments, or that Egypt is 
a country in which reasonable precautions against 
colds, chills, and other illnesses are not necessary. 
There are forms of illness and debility that cannot 
be benefited by a Nile sojourn, I am assured by med- 
ical men long experienced in Egypt. They are few, 
it is true, but included in the list are advanced heart- 
disease; advanced organic disease of any organ, 
excepting cases of chronic and extensive lung-con- 
solidation, tubercular or otherwise, which are often 
relieved ; locomotor ataxia, the lightning pains of 
which seem to be increased by the electrical con- 
ditions incident to the atmosphere of the desert; 
many forms of skin-disease ; insomnia, except when 
arising from worry or excessive brain-work ; forms 
of neurosis, liable to be irritated by the brilliant 
sunshine; hypochondria with melancholy ten- 
dency; convalescence from acute diseases, where 
vigorous exercise is essential for recuperation. For 
these a colder climate is better. 

An eminent authority, Dr. Hermann Weber, has 
prepared the following list of cases that should be 
cured or relieved by a winter visit to Egypt : " All 

378 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

forms of chest-disease where rest is desirable— for 
such cases the climate acts as a charm ; all forms of 
incipient phthisis, where the constitutional disorder 
preceding the disease is marked, and especially 
where the patients have still plenty of energy left 
and are fond of riding in moderation, and of a quiet 
life ; chronic bronchitis, where the expectoration is 
more or less abundant, and persons with a gouty ten- 
dency ; asthma, especially those cases complicated 
with bronchitis; gout; heart-disease, if uncompli- 
cated with dropsy; all forms of anemia and chloro- 
sis ; renal diseases and sufferers from gravel ; con- 
valescents from acute diseases, such as influenza, 
pleurisy, etc., and in the quiescent forms of chronic 
affection of the lungs, trachea, or bronchi, especially 
old-standing pneumonic conditions following influ- 
enza ; atonic forms of dyspepsia ; chronic rheuma- 
tism and the milder cases of rheumatoid arthritis ; 
chorea, deteriorated health, and general break-up 
of the system, following overwork, especially in 
men between fifty and sixty years of age, with 
gouty tendencies associated with arterial degen- 
eration." 

" To persons who are either healthy or merely in 
want of mental rest and recreation or of healthful 
occupation— for instance, persons who are socially 
or mentally overworked, or who have sustained 
shocks or disappointments, or who have been ex- 
posed to one of the thousand forms of more or less 
prolonged worry, or who are without profession 
and occupation, and lack either the power or the 
inclination to procure a healthy substitute for them 

379 



Present-Day Egypt 

—in such persons a winter spent in Egypt may lead 
to the return of mental energy and bodily health 
and vigor," remarks the same authority. 

It is the duty of any writer on the subject of 
Egypt as a resort for health-seekers to caution 
those reading from an interested standpoint, that 
one may contract a cold there perhaps as easily 
as elsewhere. The winds of the Nile valley, the 
marked difference between sun and shade tempera- 
ture, and the excessive chill coming with sunset, 
are certain to seize the unwary person feeling that 
his presence in North Africa gives exemption 
from such mishaps. A Nile cold has potentialities 
of seriousness, and cannot be annulled by power of 
will. On the contrary, an Egyptian cold is stub- 
bornly difficult to be got rid of. 

No climate is without its disadvantages as well 
as advantages, and it is important that a seeker for 
mental rest and physical benefit should be as cog- 
nizant of the former as of the latter. Change of 
climate, intelligently planned, frequently helps an 
ailment when other forms of treatment have failed ; 
and in cases where it may have caused am elioration 
merely, it may by repeated trials eventually effect 
a lasting cure. Immediate recovery is no more cer- 
tain to be effected by a change of air and scene 
than by other remedial agents. Maladies of a con- 
stitutional character, such as Egypt is believed to 
cure, may not even be relieved in a single season, 
while a second visit may eradicate them for all time. 
Expert medical opinion is worth securing before 
setting out for the Nile country, and should be f re- 

380 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

quently sought while in that heaven-favored land. 
A well-known British physician, Dr. James Clarke, 
writing on the subject of climates in their health- 
giving aspect, wisely says : " The air, or climate, is 
often regarded by patients as possessing some spe- 
cific quality by virtue of which it directly cures the 
disease. This erroneous view of the matter not un- 
f requently proves the bane of the invalid, by leading 
him, in the fullness of his confidence in climate, 
to neglect other circumstances, an attention to 
which may be more essential to his recovery than 
that in which all his hopes are centered." And 
again : " If a patient would reap the full measure of 
good which his new position places within his reach, 
he must trust more to his own conduct than to the 
simple influence of any climate, however genial; 
he must avail himself of all the advantages which 
the climate possesses, and eschew those disadvan- 
tages from which no climate or situation is exempt ; 
moreover, he must exercise both resolution and 
patience in prosecuting all this to a successful 
issue." 

As a rule, robust as well as delicate visitors leave 
Egypt too early in the spring, thereby undoing in 
many instances the benefits of their sojourn by 
encountering the cold weather of Europe. The 1st 
of March sees a stampede to get away, and every 
steamer goes crowded to its limit; the up-Nile 
contingent is seized with a common impulse to get 
to Eome or Venice or Paris for Easter Sunday, and 
rushes pell-mell through Cairo to Alexandria or 
the canal to take ship for the Continent, perhaps 

18 381 



Present-Day Egypt 

to find gales and cold storms that effectually undo 
the physical improvement resulting from the season 
passed in Egypt. Instead of hurrying away as 
the first khamsin blows, it is better to remain in 
Cairo or Alexandria until the end of April. These 
cities are replete with out-of-season comfort, and 
no danger lurks in the honest warm weather. 
March is delightful, and if the midday sun of April 
is avoided, there is no discomfort worthy of con- 
sideration. Strangely enough, the ever-present 
mosquito is less annoying in spring and early sum- 
mer than in winter. 

As temperaments vary, so differ the ways of see- 
ing the Nile, even of reaching Luxor and Assuan. 
The trip is in no case inexpensive, unless made by 
rail; and in a country possessing so many unri- 
valed interests, no one wishes to travel by railway 
except in case of necessity. Up to comparatively 
recent years the voyager to Upper Egypt made 
the journey only at great expense of time and 
money. It meant months on a dahabiyeh, generally 
chartered for an entire season. Nothing more 
agreeable can ever be devised ; but there are stages 
and conditions of invalidism where it is undesirable 
to take the risk of being several days between towns, 
unless the invalid be accompanied by a physician. 
Steam, under these circumstances, with its definite 
schedule, is safer. The large tourist- steamers carry 
medical officers, experienced and efficient, and com- 
bine every convenience and comfort of a floating 
home. Stopping at fewer places, and having no 
program of excursions to points of interest far re- 

382 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

moved from the river-banks, as offered by the 
tourist-boats, the post-steamers are quicker and 
much less expensive. In either case, the traveler 
is seldom out of telegraphic touch with the world 
for more than a few hours at a time. 

Sanitary skill has liberated Egypt from the list 
of eastern countries where epidemics may rage un- 
controlled, and there is no more important item 
of benefit through British intervention than the 
introduction of measures which quickly suppress 
or limit outbreaks of cholera and fevers. A visi- 
tation of cholera a generation ago ran riot for many 
months and decimated the population of Egyptian 
cities and towns. Dreadful as it must ever be, 
cholera nowadays is so promptly and intelligently 
dealt with that well-conditioned people run little 
risk of contracting the malady. The last serious 
appearance of this disease in 1902, although re- 
quiring months to exterminate, was so skilfully 
handled that the mortality was kept at an un- 
heard-of low figure ; and had it not been for the 
sensational chroniclings of the press of Europe but 
few persons dwelling in the European quarters of 
Cairo and Alexandria would have suffered anxiety. 
Travelers on the Nile were no more in danger than 
if making a tour of the fiords of Norway. The in- 
ternational quarantine board in Egypt keeps a 
vigilant watch of Asiatic epidemics, and apprehends 
the spread of a virulent disease usually long before 
it has reached Suez in its western progress. Were 
it not for the timely work of the international 
bor>rd, whose labors were augmented by those of 

385 



Present-Day Egypt 

the Egyptian sanitary service— a thorougMy or- 
ganized department of the national administra- 
tion — the Nile country would probably not have 
escaped the recent scourge of bubonic plague 
originating in Bombay. The presence of a few 
isolated cases in Alexandria, disquieting as the 
despatches were, in no way imperiled the coun- 
try. The time has passed when an ordinary out- 
break of cholera or plague can menace winter 
visitors to Egypt— though the proprietors of Con- 
tinental winter-resorts are never angry when 
Continental newspapers announce the appearance 
of an infectious disease in Egypt. 

A good dragoman contributes much to one's 
comfort and enjoyment. Persons spending the 
season in or near Cairo, or making the usual tour 
of the Nile, have no need of a special dragoman. 
Nearly every steamer provides well-informed 
guides. For sight-seeing in towns, or brief excur- 
sions, one may be taken for the day — and hotels 
swarm with them. A good dragoman is a blessing 
undisguised ; but one in whom you lack confidence 
is an unmitigated misfortune. Interpreter-guides 
proffer their services at steamship landing, railway- 
station, and even in the street. Most of them are 
plausible and insinuating, but a display of firmness 
will protect the visitor from imposition. They are 
cunning students of human nature, but easily kept 
in place. It is wise to engage a dragoman recom- 
mended by an acquaintance who has tested him, or 
one guaranteed by a reputable agency. Most of 
the professional guides are capable, painstaking, 

386 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

and honest; but a well-defined written contract 
aids greatly in keeping them exact in disbursements 
and duties, and the average man of this calling 
greatly values money given him as "bakshish." 
For a dahabiyeh voyage a dragoman-contractor 
is almost indispensable. With the wane of the 
Egyptian season, dragomans endeavor to secure 
parties going to Palestine or Mount Sinai, and 
have this object in mind while serving winter 
patrons. 

The robust traveler bound for the land of the 
Pyramids can disembark from his Atlantic liner in 
England or France, as the case may be, catch a quick 
train to Marseilles, Brindisi, Genoa, Naples, Ven- 
ice, or Triest, and be in Alexandria or Port Said in 
a few days' less time than if he went by the all-sea 
route. If he is willing to travel post-haste, he may 
be in Cairo in fourteen days after leaving New 
York, or possibly in thirteen. 

" He who has once tasted the water of the Nile," 
says an Arab proverb, "longs for it inexpressibly 
forevermore." 

It may not be out of place in this chapter to tell 
of an Egyptian case of faith-cure falling under the 
writer's observation. If the reading of it creates 
amusement for a moment, its chronicling herewith 
will be justified. 

As an aid to recuperation from headache the 
juice of the humble American clam had been found 
extremely efficacious by a certain diplomatist ac- 
credited to the court of the khedive. A dozen 

387 



Present-Day Egypt 

bottles of the liquid were consequently ordered 
from New York. When they reached Cairo it was 
explained to the servant attendant of the diplomat 
that the bottles were to be carefully kept until his 
master next suffered from sick-headache. This 
was sufficient to cause the servitor mentally to 
classify the article as " medicine," and to believe 
it was absolutely effective, for it had come all the 
way from America. 

When the first bottle was opened it was discov- 
ered that the long journey from New York, through 
the tropical heat of a Mediterranean summer, had 
transformed the liquid from something to be cher- 
ished into something to be hurriedly cast away. 
The second bottle was worse than the first, while 
the third was— awful. Probably the package had 
been stored near the ship's boilers, for ordinary 
heat could never cause so pronounced a case of 
" spoiling." Andraas was consequently instructed 
to throw the remaining bottles away, to get them 
out of the house— to do anything with them that 
insured speedy removal. 

The following winter the diplomatist was tour- 
ing in Upper Egypt, and with friends was invited 
to accept the hospitality of a notable residing near 
the famed ruins of Karnak. The host, Abdel- 
Kerim Effendi, was a landowner of fabulous fortune, 
whose entertainments partook of true Oriental 
extravagance. A house had been specially erected 
in which to serve the dinner, and a carriage brought 
five hundred miles from Cairo to convey the visi- 
tors from their steamer to the Abdel-Kerim estate. 

388 



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EGYPT, 



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TME-M.-N.CO.I 



Lon-.-lluiU- K:i 



In Egypt for Health's Sake 

The banquet concluded in course of time, and then 
the amiable host took his guests on a tour of in- 
spection of the public rooms of his abode. Con- 
spicuously displayed in one of the salons was a 
group of bottles that to the diplomatist looked 
strangely familiar. They were undeniably of Amer- 
ican origin, and scrutiny of the labels proved them 
to contain So-and-so's well-known clam-juice. 

The Egyptian, with great satisfaction of manner, 
said something through his interpreter like this: 
" Yes, I like everything that is American. In that 
country all things are magnificent and marvelous. 
Nothing can be more wonderful than this headache 
medicine. Last Bairam the cavass of my honored 
friend sent me this lotion from Cairo as a present, 
and now I have no fear of headache. When I de- 
tect the symptoms, I apply this beneficent medi- 
cine to my head, rubbing it well into the forehead 
and temples. In two minutes I am well. It is a 
marvelous elixir, and I mean soon to send to Amer- 
ica for a hundred bottles of it, as it is so effi- 
cacious." 

Abdel-Kerim's faith in American clam-juice as 
a remedy for external use was as sublime as his 
belief in Allah, and it was his guest's conviction 
that it was no part of his official duty to discour- 
age the importation of an American commodity 
promising to have an extended use in the neigh- 
borhood of ancient Karnak. 



39^ 



INDEX 



Ababdehs, Bedouin tribe of, 338 ; des- 
ert craft of, 341; courage-dance, 
342 ; girl dancer, 349. 

Abbas Hilmi, kbedive, 1, 274 ; at open- 
ing of Assuan dam, 175; criticism 
of, in England, 275; student days, 
276, 279 ; lingual capacity, 280 ; civil 
list, 281 ; description of, 285 ; babits, 
286 ; heir to kbedivate, 291. 

Abukir Bay, 92, 95, 294. 

Agriculture, value of cotton crop, 
133 ; primitive, 169, 170 ; advance of 
cane-culture, 176 ; cotton-culture in 
Delta, 177, 178. 

" Aida," original production of, 22. 

Alexander, forethought of, in found- 
ing Alexandria, 80. 

Alexandria, antiquity of, 78 ; custom- 
house, 79, 102 ; medley of popula- 
tion, 79 ; ancient Pharos, 80 ; as seat 
of learning and great library, 83 ; 
Mehemet All's interest in, 85 ; city 
and harbor of present day, 86, 87; 
shipments of cotton from, 90; mas- 
sacre of Christians, 90; railway to 
Kamleh, 95 ; Greeks at, 96 ; port re- 
ceipts, 133; bombardment of, 262, 
265. 

American judges In international 
courts, 116. 

American Presbyterian Mission, edu- 
cational work of, 328. 

Anglo-Egyptian expedition, 63, 302. 

Anniversaries, 14. 

Arabi Pasha, rebellion, 188; lacking 
in attributes of leadership, 259 ; de- 
mand for dismissal of Riaz ministry, 
260; as minister of war, 261 ; crush- 
ing of rebellion, 262, 265, 206 ; in ex- 
ile, 271 ; trial, sentence, and banish- 
ment, 314, 315. 

Area of practical Egypt, 119; com- 
parative size of, 165. 

Assiut, construction of barrage at, 
163, 164. 



Assuan, Bairam celebration near, 842 

as health-station, 371-374. 
Assuan reservoir, 151, 153, 157; con- 
tractors of, 158; cost, 158; descrip- 
tion, 159, 160 ; locks of, 163 ; agricul- 
tural expansion produced by, 165, 
166; laying of corner-stone, 172; 
ceremonial attending opening, 175. 

Bairara celebration, 342. 
Bakshish, 41, 184, 372, 387. 
Barrage, near Cairo, 148; origin of, 

170; early failure of, 171; made 

practical by British, 172. 
Bazaars, of Cairo, 41-43; of Assuan, 

374. 
Bedouins, 5, 294, 338, 364. 
Bible, scenes thereof, 6. 
British army of occupation, cost of, 

55, 188. 

Cairo, f oimdlng of, 1 ; quaint life, 2 ; 
letter-writers, 7 ; street scenes, 8, 
12, 21; polyglot, 13; confusing cal- 
endars, 14; sacred carpet ceremo- 
nial, 16; funerals, 20; adornment 
with statues, 34 ; tram-cars, 36 ; ba- 
zaars, 41, 42 ; Mouski, 45 ; mosques, 
47; El-Azhar University, 69; Suez 
Canal fetes in, 211; climate and 
rainfall 359. 

Canals, Bahr Youssef, 164; Mahmu- 
diyeh, 164 ; early projects for canal 
from Nile to Suez, 189 ; prediction 
of trouble therefrom, 189. 

Capitulations, 105 ; origin of, 106-110. 

Census, difficulty of taking, 116; of 
1897, 123. 

Ceremonials, sacred carpet, 16 ; cut- 
ting of Khalig, 69. 

Cigarettes, their manufacture, 75. 

Clam-juice anecdote, 387. 

Cleopatra, 96 ; pure Greek, 97, 98 ; va- 
riety of portraits, 98 ; death by aep- 
bite improbable, 101. 



393 



Ind 



ex 



Climate, 358, 378, 380, 381. 
Connaught, Duke and Duchess of, 

172, 175, 176. 
Consular courts, 106. 
Courage-dance of Atoabdehs, 342, 351- 

357. 
Cromer, Earl of, able administrator, 

140; de facto ruler, 143, 181, 322, 327. 
Cromer, Countess of, 144. 

Dancing-girls, 30, 346, 349, 350. 

Debt, national bonded, 125 ; per capi- 
ta, 178. 

De Lesseps, Ferdinand, 184; conces- 
sion for Suez Canal, 192 ; movement 
to give name to canal, 211 ; monu- 
ment to, 212. 

Divorce, simplicity of, 27. 

Dongola expedition, 310. 

Dragomans, 386, 387. 

Egypt, involved administration, 104 ; 
limited area, 119 ; origin of name, 
120 ; from insolvency to prosperity, 
120; population, 120, 123, 124; im- 
provement of financial position,125 ; 
debt, 125, 322 ; debt compared with 
other countries, 126; imports and 
exports, and Alexandria port re- 
ceipts, 133; budget and tribute to 
Sultan, 133; sources of revenue, 
134; land-tax, 134, 137; value of 
land, 139; producing capacity in- 
creased by Assuan dam, 158, 165; no 
benefit from Suez Canal, 186; cost 
of canal to, 209 ; reversion of canal 
to, 218 ; governed from London, 300 ; 
short cut to English honors, 321; 
present prosperity, 321, 322 ; self- 
government, 335, 336. 

Egyptian cotton, origin, 89 ; proliflc- 
ness, 138 ; Delta a great cotton-fleld, 
177; advantages of fellah cultiva- 
tor, 177, 178; necessity in United 
States and Europe, 178; predicted 
increase of, 181; importance to 
Great Britain, 318. 

Egyptian Museum, 5, 66, 238; new, 69. 

Egyptian question, 300. 

" EvU eye," superstitious fear of, 33. 

Faith-cure, fanciful case of, 387-389. 

Fayum, 369 ; Eose of (poem), 370, 371. 

France, in Suez Canal affair, 203; 
emperor arbitrates, 203-206; with- 
drawal from dual financial control, 
302 ; non-participation in bombard- 



ment of Alexandria, 305 ; invited to 
share responsibility of same, 306 ; in 
Tunis, 316 ; French as official lan- 
guage, 329 ; journals in French lan- 
guage, 330. 

Great Britain, saving Egypt from 
bankruptcy, 127 ; work of regener- 
ating Egypt, 127 ; territorial expan- 
sion, 151 ; intention of retaining 
control of Egypt, 158 ; treatment of 
Khedive Abbas, 274, 275; right to 
be in Egypt, 300 ; retention of Egypt 
not at first intended, 313; official 
utterances regarding intervention 
in Egypt, 313, 314; advantage of 
control in Egypt, 317, 318 ; not pre- 
pared Egyptians for self-govern- 
ment, 324 ; subjects in administra- 
tive offices, 327, 328; introducing 
English language, 330, 331 ; anoma- 
lous position in Egypt, 337. 

Harem, ceasing to exist, 28; descrip- 
tion of, 28. 

Hashish, 101 ; how smuggled, 102, 103. 

Health, 336, 363, 366 ; cases not bene- 
fited by sojoui-n in Egypt, 378 ; cases 
benefited, 379 ; Nile colds, 380. 

Heir to khedivate, 291. 

Heliopolis, 48, 366. 

Helouan, 366 ; baths of, 369. 

HowUng dervishes, 28. 

Ibrahim Pasha, viceroy, 221, 222. 

Incubatories, chicken, 365. 

International courts, 105 ; originated 
by Nubar Pasha, 111 ; procedure 
and jurisdiction, 112 ; location, 115 ; 
languages of, 332. 

International Debt Commission, 105 ; 
cost of and limitation of powers, 
132. 

International quarantine board, 385. 

Irrigation, 145; barrage near Cauro, 
148; preparation for Assuan dam, 
151 ; advantages of Assuan site, 153. 

Ismail Pasha, khedive, beautifying 
Cairo, 35; entailed rulership, 117; 
no rule for collecting taxes, 134, 186 ; 
interest in Suez Canal project, 187 ; 
sale of canal shares to British gov- 
ernment, 188 ; firman from Sublime 
Porte ordering succession by pri- 
mogeniture, 201, 202 ; errors of, 220 ; 
education in France, 222 ; disap- 
pearance of the " Mouf ettish," 226 ; 



394 



Ind 



ex 



generosity, 228; surrender of es- 
tates, 231 ; leaves Ef,'ypt, 232 ; at 
Naples, 233 ; at Constantinople, 233 ; 
character, 237 ; debts incurred, 238 ; 
death, 240 ; funeral, 243-246. 

Karnak, 372. 

Khamsin, 360, 363. 

Khedivah, 288. 

Khedivah-m6re, 291. 

Kitchener, General Lord, sirdar, 53, 
54, 65, 321. 

Koran, 24; as text-boot, 63; forbid- 
ding liquors and wines, 103. 

Lake Mareotis, sea admitted to, 91. 
Lake Menzaleh, 195. 
Luxor, 371, 372. 

Marriage, description of, 15 ; growth 
of monogamy, 24. 

Matarieh, 365. 

Mecca, pilgrimage to, 19. 

Mehemet All, prince, brother of Khe- 
dive Abbas, 279, 282, 291. 

Mehemet Ali Pasha, founder of dy- 
nasty, 1; revels at Shubra Palace, 
75 ; interest in Alexandria, 85 ; con- 
nected Alexandria with Nile, 85; 
interest in isthmian canalization, 
193. 

Mena House, 39, 359, 364. 

Mohammed Abdoul-Mounaim, prince, 
heir to khedivate, 291. 

Mortality, diminution of death-rate, 
124. 

Mosques, 47. 

MousM, 45, 46. 

Napoleon I, suggested barrage for 
irrigating Delta, 170; considered 
canalization between Mediterra- 
nean and Suez, 190. 

Napoleon III, amazing award of, in 
Suez Canal dispute, 205. 

Nile, travel to, 128 ; periods of high 
and low, 146 ; sugar-cane of, 147 ; 
barrage near Cairo, 148 ; length, 164 ; 
waste of water and deposit, 165 ; 
affluents of, 166 ; sustained by rain- 
fall of equatorial region, 166, 169; 
unchangeable features of, 169; 
Delta now a cotton-field, 177; mo- 
nopolization by Great Britain, 306 ; 
high, 359; how to see, 382; Arab 
proverb of, 387. 

Nubar Pasha, originator of interna- 



tional courts, 111 ; difficulty with 
French newspaper, 118, 225, 226. 

Obelisks, none in Cairo or Alexandria, 

48, 91 ; in situ at Assuan, 374. 
Office-holding, 131. 
Ophthalmia, 33. 

Palaces, Gizeh, 69; Shubra, 71, 72; 
Montazah, 95, 294; Ras-el-Teen, 95, 
294; Ghizereh, 227; Abdin, 248; Koub- 
beh, 253; state ball at Abdin, 298. 

PhilsB, site of Nile dam, 181, 182 ; in- 
jury and submersion of, 181-184; 
protests against desecration of, 182, 
183 ; date of temples, 183. 

Pilgrimage to Mecca, 19. 

Polygamy, 24. 

Population, 120, 123 ; density of, 124. 

Port Said, entrance to canal (note), 
211 ; statue to De Lesseps, 211. 

Professional letter-writers, 7. 

Professional mourners, 20. 

Railways, electric, in Cairo, 36; to 
Pyramids, 36; from Alexandria to 
Kamleh, 95 ; receipts and operating 
expenses of state, 128 ; in the Sudan, 
128; international aspect of, 132; 
from Cairo to Suez, 193 ; from Luxor 
and Assuan to Cairo, 371. 

Rainfall, 358, 359. 

Ramadan, 14. 

Rameses the Great, 5, 69. 

Ramleh, 92, 377. 

Religion, devotion to, 23 ; sects of 
Mohammedan, 61 ; classification of, 
124. 

Rosetta Stone, 66. 

Russia, interest in Egypt, 307 ; Asiatic 
aspirations, 308; ways of reaching 
East, 308 ; desire to avoid British 
opposition, 309. 

Sacred carpet, 16. 

Said Pasha, viceroy, giving of Suez 
Canal concession, 187, 194 ; subscrip- 
tion to canal's capital, 187, 198. 

Sakkarah, 364. 

Seasons, 339, 340. 

Slavery, not obligatory, 28; "slave" 
palace attendants, 292. 

Soldiers, 52 ; efficiency of, 54 ; British 
army of occupation, 55; at Khalig 
ceremonial, 70; cost of army, 134. 

Sphinx, crumbling of, 184, 185. 

Sudan, to be developed, 181 ; recon- 



395 



Index 



quest of, 307, 310, 318 ; income from, 
310. 

Suez Canal, 103, 186 ; concession for, 
194, 195; cost to Egypt, 209; value 
to commerce, 213; nationality of 
ships using, 214; statistics of ton- 
nage and receipts, 214 ; economy of, 
217 ; capital and profit, 218 ; rever- 
sion to Egypt, 218 ; advantages of, 
308. 

Sultan, Egyptian tribute to, 104 ; de- 
poses Ismail, 247; makes Tewflk 
kliedive, 247 ; annexation of Egypt 
unjust to, 302; declined to send 
troops to Alexandria, 316; disinte- 
gration of empire of, 337. 

Taxation, 134 ; land-tax, 137. 

Temperature, 359. 

Teyrflk Pasha, kliedive, favored single 
marriage, 24 ; Improved method of 
collecting land-taxes, 134, 231; 
named khedive by Sultan, 247 ; birth. 



250 ; diflSculties in rule of, 255; want- 
ing in firmness, 266; in cholera- 
infested Cairo, 267 ; pleaded for com- 
mutation of Arabi's sentence, 271; 
Admiral Seymour's communication 
to, 313. 

Thebes, plain of, 372. 

Tobacco, cultivation forbidden, 75. 

Tombs of the Kings, 372. 

United States, use of Egyptian cotton 
in, 178 ; use of Suez Canal by ships 
of, 214, 217. 

University of El-Azhar, oldest in 
world, 59 ; description of, 60-65. 

Whitehouse, Cope, rediscovery of 
Lake Mceris by, 152 ; possibility of 
using for water-storage, 153. 

Women, aversion to European cus- 
toms, 23 ; improving condition, 27 ; 
graceful water-carriers, 56, 253 ; at- 
tendants in khedive's household,292. 



396 



m 6 1903 . 



